THE GAP BETWEEN

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 118, 20 May 1932, Page 6

THE GAP BETWEEN

A good -deal may. be behind' the Stevens-Willis episode. Both the U.A.P. Premier'of New South Wales and the Lang Labour Agent-General of the same State would like to see a concession by the British bondholder—but there the parallel between Mr. Stevens and Mr. Willis ends. Mr. Willis represented a petitioner (the terms of his petition unknown) ; who was also a defaulter and proud of it; from such a one; a request addressed to a bondholder is a threat,- and for Mr. Willis to say now that he never understood the Lang poliqy to.be repudiation is beside the mark. In stating that negotiation with British holders of New South Wales bonds is a matter "entirely for the Australian Loan Council" Mr. Stevens has in one sentence defined the gap between himself and Mr. Willis. It is'the gap between a Government that has defaulted and a Council-of-Goverhments that has attempted to; preserve the honour of' all, the defaulter included..

On the bondholder's side there will be no failure ■'. to 'discriminate between • a negotiation with the Australian Loan Council and a negotiation tvith Mr. Lang and Mr. Willis; but first of. all the* Lang parleys must be got out of the way,'and that is what Mr. Steven's is trying to do. With Mr. Lang gone,, Mr. .Willis'may still remain a sinister figure unless he is definitely excluded from the negotiation. -What, then, will follow? • . Will the .Australian Loan Council now at last find some better arrangement with the bondholder? What happens in. Australia cannot fail to interest New Zealand. Owing to the fall in prices, the interest received by the oversea bondholder buys much more than it did three years ago,. and a recent calculation (covering price-fall and. exchange) suggests that in the case of CommonWealth loans, if the bondholder's interest were to be given the same commodity value as it had when the loans were raised, the rate of interest would be something under 4 per cent.