The Frankline Times PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY, WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOON. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 1943 A SACRET TRUST

Franklin Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 45, 21 April 1943, Page 2

The Frankline Times PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY, WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOON.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 1943 A SACRET TRUST

Office and Works: ROULSTON STREET, PUKEKOHE. ’Phone No. 2. P-O. Box 14. “Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice.”

IT is timely that the Prime Minister shonl<i say, as lie did lasi week, that the Government regards it as a sacred trust to ensure that those who invest I heir money for war purposes will receive hack every shilling and the interest promised. Suggestions that any other course is possible cannot fail to have a very damaging effect, and those who make them are doing a very serious disservice to the country at a time when it is essential that financial resources should be fully available for war purposes. It would be unthinkable that persons who, actuated by the highest patriotic motives, have placed their savings at the disposal of the State and have thus assisted to maintain and equip the Armed Forces of the country, should be deprived of their capital and the interest it has earned. If this were allowed to happen it would mean that those who have failed to contribute would benefit at the expense of the unselfish and patriotic. Some analogies are sometimes drawn between international indebtedness in the last war and lendlease procedure in the present war, but these have no application to the pledge given and the trust accepted bv the State for those of its own citizens who place their resources freely at tin 1 service of the country. The Prime Minister's assurance should he an additional incentive to those with surplus spending power to place it freely and confidently at the disposal of ||u> stale. As Mr Fraser said, the resources of the country, as they

were developed, would be more than adequate to meet all calls made and

In repay those who gave their money so cheerfully. That section of the public which lias patriotically contributed to loans and national savings should, because of that contribution

and saving, he in a position to meet flic demands of the future at least as good as that held by those who have used their money for their own purposes. This means not only that I lie contract should he honoured and the loans repaid, but that the value should he maintained and not suffer inflationary diminution.