DEMAND FOR A POLICY

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 58, 10 March 1933, Page 7

DEMAND FOR A POLICY

DEBATE IN CO3DIONS

CHANCELLOR'S REPLY

NEED OF CONFIDENCE

(British Official Wireless.) (Received March 10, 1 p.m.)' RUGBY, March 9. A motion asking for a policy tot raise wholesale prices was debated in the House of Commons last night,' and was approved by the Government's , spokesman, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, Chancellor of-tlie Exchequer. ; . In his speech, winding up. the debate, Mr. Chamberlain again asserted that there would be no precipitate . return to the gold standard. Replying, to tha criticism that the Government had missed a great opportunity at Ottawa to establish an . Imperial monetary system, he pointed out that the immediate difficulty was that the Dominions would have to grant the power of fixing the rate of sterling, which they would have to accept without having, any control. It was conceivable that what suited Britain at a particular moment would not necessarily suit the Dominions, and the suggestion therefore was not in the range of practical politics. ~: Referring to the fall of- wholesale prices, he said that they. had. diminished since October, 1920, by onethird*, and in the case of raw materials by 50 or 60 per cent. This had practically destroyed the purchasing power of a number of countries. The fall in primary products had been much greater than the fall in manufactured articles, and' tha N fall in wholesale prices much greater than the. fall in retail prices. The effect of this was that countries had-been unable ,to purchase the goods which Britain produced. Wholesale sterling prices had remained remarkably steady, particularly when compared with those ik countries on the gold standard.' This, he suggested, showed that we were in the presence of world.forces and that by some means, largely, he thought,- by the monetary policy pursued here, we had countered the effect of these world forces so far as sterling prices were concerned. He did not, however, believe it to be possible,to raise sterling .prices by, monetary action alone. There must be. confidence, and the question, arose as to how confidence could be increased. As long as the world was in a disturbed condition, when no one knew what political changes were likely or what financial difficulties other countries might find themselves involved in, they could not "expect international trade to resume its former volume. H» did npt believe any artificial stimulus' could restore the,, volume of international tfrade, which, must depend upon improving world conditions.