GOLD PRICE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 196, 20 July 1937, Page 6

GOLD PRICE.

SIR HIiNRY STRAKOSCH’S VIEW

A reduction in the price of gold n.ould be disastrous, declared Sir Henry Strakosch, chairman of the Economist Newspaper, Ltd., who has been financial adviser to the South African Government at various international conferences.

Sir Henry Strakosch, who was replying to the suggestion made by Professor Gustav Cassel, of the University of Stockholm, in the London Daily Ma.jl on June 8, that the price of gold should be reduced half way between the old figure and the present one, condemned this proposal. He declared that it showed a singular disregard for the social consequences. He added : “A reduction in the price of gold or, in other words, an arbitrary increase in the purchasing power of the currencies affected, would mean a sudden fall in the level of commodity prices—in fact, a deliberate reversion to the conditions which led to the crisis of 1931.” Sir Henry Strakosch considered that if any single country, without similar action by the rest of the world, lowered the price of gold, it would lead to a renewal of exchange chaos, thereby injuring international trade. “If the price of gold was lowered universally, on the other hand, it would spell a disastrous renew.nl of business bankruptcies and working class unemployment and ail encouragement of the subversive forces which threaten world stability,” he added.