STABILITY AND INTEGRITY

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 71, 21 September 1933, Page 10

STABILITY AND INTEGRITY

New Zealand's Prime Minister is not a man of easy enthusiasm, and his appreciation of the steadfastness of British character must have been great when it found expression in this statement: —

When everything in other countries seemed to be on shifting sands, British institutions stood as, solid as a rock. There was no donbt that Britain was the most solid nation in-the world. For centuries she had been_the financial centre of the world, arid" the reason for this was to be found in the character of the British'.people,'who had been responsible for her financial policy.' For this reason she would . remain the financial centre; of the world.

There are, of course, other trade and economic reasons determining the location of the financial centre; but the integrity and stability of British character kept London as the centre when other factors, were tending to give New York a dominating position. Generations of British have known and borne responsibility with the consciousness that they had a public purpose to serve- Apart from such minor ; and passing, failures as the Hairy crash, the public welfare (has been sought. Contrast this with the speculative orgies of America I (as described so vividly in "T.C.L.'s" [article on Saturday) leading to the collapse of 10,000 banks and I President Roosevelt's denunciation of ithe money-changers who knew "only the rules of a generation of selfseekers." The difference is one of values, and Britain's leaders in banking and finance have ever been mindful that integrity, courage, and the inviolability of contracts are things not to be measured by the gold standard or sold for a temporary easing of interest burdens.