"WRONG IN PRINCIPLE"

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 26, 1 February 1932, Page 5

"WRONG IN PRINCIPLE"

GOVERNMENT'S METHOD

COMMANDEER OF EXPOR* INCOME

The following motion has beea passed by the executive of the. Associated Chambers of Commerce:—

"This association considers that the method chosen by the Government to extricate itself from" its difficulty of making overseas payments, by commandeering the export income-' of , this Dominion in London, is wrong in principle and inimical to the commercial and productive welfare of the-Domin-ion.

"The association accepts the necessity for the Dominion to provide sufficient funds in London to meet the necessities of the Government, but considers simpler and better plans, could have been devised to meet • this need rather than those forc2d upon the community, without consultation, by Order-in-Council, at short notice, and without adequate explanation or machinery; for working. .-.-.'

"This order is causing large, estra work to the people who are conducting the trade and commerce of the Dominion, and great inconvenience, and;' ia some cases considerable loss.

"It is a contravention of the -prin. ciple for which this association has stood for jnany years, and which has nominally been accepted by both parr ties in the present Government, of less Government interference in. business.

"The association urges on the Government the absolute necessity, of. aa open, free market for exchange, so.that th rate of exchange may find its own level in accordance with supply aid demand. . ' . '

•"It requests the Government to invite the banks, the producers, and th« commercial community to confer-with the Treasury in order to adopt plans for providing the Government with funds for its necessities, without causing injury to the business of the 'Dominion.

"It strongly impresses upon the Government the necessity for immediate and drastic reduction in its expenditure, so that its temporary borrowings may progressively decrease." .