HOARDING GOLD ?

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 April 1946, Page 8

HOARDING GOLD ?

AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT ACCUSED

CANBERRA, April 3

A charge that the Commonwealth Government was hoarding gold and thus failing to cq-operate with Britain and the Empire was made by Mr. J. P, Abbott (Country Party). He accused the Prime Minister (Mr. Chifley) of giving misleading and evasive replies to a request in the House of Representatives last week for information about Australia’s gold hoardings.

Mr. Abbott said that the Commonwealth Statistician’s figures revealed that £42,000,000 worth of gold had I been retained in the country since July, 1941. The policy of hoarding gold instead of selling it to the United States and putting dollars into the Empire’s sterling dollar pool betokened a failure to co-operate with Britain arid the Empire. Local production, plus imports, aggregated £51,000,000 between June, 1941, and January of this year. Deducting exports totalling £9,000,000, the figures revealed a balance of £41,000,000 retained in Australia. Even during the last 19 months the gold retained amounted to more than £13,000,000. Mr. Abbott claimed that the Prime Minister’s reference to a large quantity of gold held on behalf of the Bank of England was also misleading. Until the American loan was made, Britain was dependent on exchange reserves of about £400,000,000, and her share of dollars from the dollar sterling pool. If Australia sold her gold she could increase the size of the common pool by about a tenth.