PROBABLE REMEDIES

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 3 September 1915, Page 4

PROBABLE REMEDIES

Returning to the exchange question, which is of great interest, it is re-assur-ing to learn on what may be termed expert authbrity, that the difficulty now being experienced by the Home Country is not likely to be of great duration. The Mercantile Gazette, from which we took an extract a day or two ago, showing how the trouble has arisen, also gives the following opinion on the probability of early relief being secured. "It, is stated that American bankers will be astonished at the volume of the metal th e Allies can afford to export, and we can well believe this. Tjw gold reserves of Russia and France are enormous, and these two countries alone hold between them about £300,000,000, which, of course, is the basis of their note circulation. In these extraordinary times the Governments are not likely to stand on ceremony, and it is quite within the bounds of possibility that Fr.ance> and Russia will furnish £100,000,000 in gold to be shipped to America to steady the exchanges. The Bank of England will probably have to do something also in this respect, so that with the credits thus to be established the American exchanges should recover. The position as regards America is an enviable one. She is. to vise a colloquial expression, simply coining money. American manufacturers are furnishing the Allies with artillery, machine guns, rifles, bayonets, ammunition of all kinds, aeroplanes, various seacraft, motor transport, equipment' for soldiers, Harness for horses, besides large quantities of foodstuffs, and in the aggregate are receiving millions sterling. The conditions make for a boom, and presently we shall sco great activity •in Wall Street with a rapid and pronounced rise in stocks, bonds, and shares. British investors hold over £2,000,000,000 of American securities, chiefly raiirwad bonds, and if the prices of these vise to an attractive level, British investors will certainly unload large blocks In Now Yojk, which would materially affect the rate of exchange and probably lead to a return of the gold that is now to be shipped to New York. Another factor to be taken into consideration is the fact that the Allios are developing their, own resources, and will therefore be less and less dependent upon the United States for munitions. The position, we have not the least doubt, wili soon right itself."