FRENCH FRANC

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 May 1935, Page 5

FRENCH FRANC

BANK RATE AGAIN RAISED [by OABUC —PBKSB ASSN. —COPYBIGHT.J PARIS, May 26. With the second raising of the bank rate, the battle for the franc has begun in earnest. It was followed by an increase in the rate of advance on gold from 4 per cent, to 5J per cent,, while the rate for advances on thirty day bills was raised from 3 per cent, to 4 per cent. These advances were announced after business hours. They become operative on Monday. The Foreign Minister, M. Laval, has hurriedly returned from Geneva. He. confers with M. Flandin to-day. U.S.A. AND STABILISATION. NEW YORK, May 25. The “New York Times’s” Washington correspondent says: The Roosevelt Administration would welcome an early international agreement on currency stabilisation. This was learned to-day from an authoritative source. Senator Hull’s well known views as to an improvement in international trade through reciprocal treaties combined with currency stabilisation are now held in more respect, than they were in the Summer of 1933, when the London Economic Conference failed. It is understood that the Administration has made overtures to several nations regarding international currency stabilisation, to which-it has received “an encouraging reaction.” If a conference could be called, it is believed that President Roosevelt would favour a meeting of the representatives of a limited number of important commercial nations, he feeling that one of the serious defects of the London gathering was its bulkiness. For a long time, some of those within the administration have hoped that London would again take a lead in world co-operation, but they now have decided that it is up to America to make the first inove.