SOCIAL CREDIT

Evening Star, Issue 21634, 1 February 1934, Page 2

SOCIAL CREDIT

MAJOR DOUGLAS ADDRESSES ADHERENTS CRITICISM OF FINANCIAL SYSTEM [Per United Press Association.] PALMERSTON N., January 30. Major Douglas was accorded a loyal reception when ho arrived at the Douglas Social Credit camp at Ashhurst this afternoon. The visit was a short one, as he had to catch the express for Wellington. His address to the gathering was followed with profound interest. Major Douglas stated that many anxious eyes were looking to New Zealand from many parts of the world. That was particularly true of the people of London. In England there was a powerful Douglas Credit organisation that was growing stronger every day. Progress was also being made in other parts. There were large groups in Canada, South Africa, France, and Norway, while the whole of the south-west of Scotland was solidly social credit. In China and Japan also the principles of the movement were being put into operation. Major Douglas stated that particularly noticeable among those inquiring into social credit was confusion of administration and policy. It was commonly said that they were aiming at the nationalisation of the banks. That might he so, and it was just possible that they might ultimately have to press for that, but as a body of those engaged in laying the foundations of a new world they were primarily concerned with policy and not administration. That was a fundamental object which they must emphasise. There was u very great danger of merely shifting one tyranny for another. “ The thing of the moment that 1 want to avert,” continued Major Douglas, “ is the danger of imposing the same sorts of tyranny in peace time that were imposed on ns during the war—namely, the tyranny of administration. It seems that at the present time there is a sort of dual control of human life in Great Britain and other Westernised nations, including New Zealand. We are under the control of finance, which limits our economic possibilities, and also under the control of Government restrictions of various kinds. If yon were to nationalise the banking system and leave the policy of that banking system as: it is you would place under one control these tyrannies, and that would be a tyranny for which there would be no cure in times of peace. At the present time we have under consideration the bringing of the banking system under the powers of the Government, but if you have the nationalisation of the banking system before any remedy is applied you have created exactly the same state of affairs as when the French nationalised the railways. There was immediately a strike on the railways, and the soldiers were called out. That danger, in some form or other, will be present, and it is a real danger.” If the present administration of bankers was so stupid and so stubborn that no other methods could be applied, he added, they might have to run the risk of altering the administration. It was very frequently said by opponents of any change in the financial system that it was absurd to suggest that there was anything wrong with the financial system because it was working at the present time, and because it was working it was right. There was a very important answer to that statemont-Y namely, that the present financial system was becoming continuously worse every day.

“ The very tilings they are saying as arguments against ns are really arguments for us,” said Major Douglas. Tiie system did work tolerably well while a country was in the course of expansion, but no country was going to go on expanding. That very fact was one of the urgent reasons why there should be a change in the financial system, and, because there was no change, there was a danger of a catastrophe cumulatively growing day by day. Major Douglas said that he believed that signs of returning prosperity were being quoted as a reason for not doing anything about the present system, but really those signs were most ominous. They were signs of returning prosperity based on expectations of war. There were people in New Zealand who believed that their troubles were over because the price of wool had risn. “ 1 must tell those people that the rise is the result of Japan buying very largely for war purposes,” he concluded. “I mention that in order to stimulate you to greater effort than before because the time is very short.”