TRADE DEPRESSION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 169, 19 June 1931, Page 7

TRADE DEPRESSION

BANK OF ENGLAND POLICY. CRITICISM LEVELLED. BRITISH EXPERTS’ VIEWS. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) LONDON, June 18.

The Daily Herald’s Lobby correspondent says that the report of the Macmillan Committee on Finance and Commerce, which was appointed in November, 1929, will be presented to the Government this week. The writer forecasts that there will bo a majority report severely criticising the Bank of England policy during the trade depression.

According to the forecast, the report will suggest that the Bank of England at present could materially improve trade by making credit more easily available and increasing the amount of money now circulating. This policy', the committee considers, should be carried out in co-operation with the Central Reserve Bank of America, the Bank of France and other great central banks. The report does not advocate a wage and salary' reduction as a practical remedy for the trade crisis. This is diametrically opposed to the view expressed by Dr Sprague, adviser to the Bank of England, in an address to the Statistical Society', in which he declared that the central bankers were of the opinion that they' could do nothing for trade until drastic cuts in wages and salaries were effected.

The report is likely' to create a sensation as the Bank of England’s policy will be openly condemned by the committee, which includes some of the greatest financial experts in Britain.

There will be also a number of minority reports, one of which will propose protection and the establishment of a national investment board to issue both short and long-term loans to industry.

PAPER’S STORY DENIED

“TRAVESTY OF REPORT.”

Received June 19, 10.0 a.m. LONDON, June 18. Lord MacMillan has officially issued a statement that the Daily Herald s forecast of the Finance and Industry Committee’s report is entirely unauthorised and is a complete travesty of the contents. The committee hope to present their report next week.

GOVERNMENT’S CLOSE ATTENTION.

PRIME MINISTER’S STATEMENT

Received June 19, 12.25 p.m. LONDON, June 18. In the House of Commons to-day, Mr Ramsay' MacDonald said that the Government had given attention to every phase of the trade depression, including last year’s downward tendency in wages. "Generally' speaking, the latter had fallen less than the cost of living. Therefore, there had been no reduction in the spending power.

In November, 1929, it was announced by Mr Philip Snowden, Chancellor of the Exchequer, that a Committee of Inquiry into Finance and Industry would “inquire into banking, finance, and credit, paying regard to tho factors both internal and international, which govern their operation, and to make recommendations calculated to enable these agencies to promote the development of trade and commerce and the employment of labour. The committee consisted of the following members:—

Lord Macmillan, K.C. (chairman), who was Lord Advocate of Scotland in 1924, and chairman of tho Court of Inquiry into tho coal-mining dispute in 1925. Sir Thomas Allen, vice-chairman of the Co-operative Wholesale Society, and chairman of the New Zealand Produce Association. Mr Ernest Bovin, general secretary of the Transport and General \\ orkers’ Union.

Lord Brcdbury, Permanent Secretary to the Treasury from 1913 to 1919, and principal British representative on the Reparation Commission. Mr R. H. Brand, managing director of Lazard Brothers and Co. merchant bankers, and a director of Lloyd’s Bank. Professor T. E. Gregory, Professor of Banking in London University. Mr J. M. Keynes, a well-kwnown economist and Treasury representative at the Paris Peace Conference. Mr Lennox. B. Lee, president of the Federation of British Industries. Mr Cecil Lubbock, a director and Icrmerly Deputy-Governor of the Bank of England. Mr Reginald McKenna, chairman ot the Midland Bank, and an cx-Chanccllor of the Exchequer. „ , , , Mr J. T. Walton Newbold, editor r-t the Social Democrat, who has been in turn a member of the Fabian Society, and Independent Labourite, and a Communist. Sir Walter Raine. deputy-president of the Association of British Chambers rf Commerce. , r ' Mr J. Prater Taylor, a director ot several banks. „ , , r Mr A. A. G. Tudock, a director of several banks. Dr Sprague, adviser to the Bank .of England, addressing the English-Speaking Union- recently, and “expressing the .views of three central banks of the world, .sum that, better conditions would most quickly be established by prints ot manufactured goods to tho now level ot agricultural products, and not by any attempt to raise agricultural products to the artificial level ot manufactured goods. Lie entered a powerful plea that cve-ything should be dono to hasten readjustment, and perhaps even to some extent to guide the futuro production into those channels where an active demand would bo likely to bo experienced. To stimulate prosperity by an inflation of credit, which, in his view, would only have the effect cl maintaining the prices which needed read justment, would mean to delay tho uitimate recovery of the world.