N.Z. Should Be Member Of International Fund : Mr. Nash States Views

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22707, 4 August 1948, Page 8

N.Z. Should Be Member Of International Fund : Mr. Nash States Views

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 3 “New Zealand is not a member of the International Monetary Fund. We ought to be, but that is another matter. We had, therefore, to make a special agreement not to frustrate the Havana Charter by exchange practices,” said the Minister of Finance, Mr. W. Nash, last night addressing the Wellington branch of the Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand on the charter. The charter, he said, prevented member countries from frustrating its principles by clever exchange practices The rules of the International Monetary Fund applied to prevent this being done by those nations which belonged to it.

That the worth of international agreements depended largely on the will of the countries Involved to see that they were carried out was stressed by the’Minister. Of necessity, the charter was a compromise document because the 56 countries of the Havana Conference were at such different stages of development, said Mr. Nash. The conference, however, was marked by an intense desire to co-operate and, despite the compromises and the exceptions, if the charter were ratified there would be a set of rules for organised trade. This was a necessary and also a helpful step toward a world governument which also had to come whether it was a century away or two centuries, or less.