“SAVE OUR SAVINGS"

Northern Advocate, 5 November 1935, Page 6

“SAVE OUR SAVINGS"

NATIONALIST PROPAGANDA CONDEMNED

“VICIOUS, MEAN AND DESPICABLE”

INTEGRITY OF LABOUR MEMBERS,

“/~)F all the vicious, mean and despicable advertisements this is the worst,” said Mr Walter Nash, M.P., National President of the Labour Party, waving at the Whangarei Town Hall last night an advertisement sponsored by Nationalists.

“It purports,” he continued, “to tell .the people that what happened to the deposits of the people in New South Wales under a Labour Government, would happen in New Zealand with our party in power. “You could not get your money anyhow. It is not there! Deposits in tne New Zealand Post Office Savings Bank total £50,000,000, of which the Government has already borrowed £ 49,000,000, and we have lost a lot of it already. All that is behind the deposits is the guarantee of the Government to pay.

“There Is not a man in the National Government;'or one associated with the drawing up of this advertisement, who does not know that the integrity of the Labour members is just as high as that of any man in the Government.

“It is imperative that the control of credit should be taken over by the Government. We cannot afford to have the life-stream of our economic life blocked by people who have no interest in social welfare. The Government must write down the policy it intends to follow, and so arrange finance and wages so that the goods produced may be consumed.”

“Broke His Promise.”

“We have ourselves to' blame for placing the control of our credit in the hands of any body of men whose primary consideration is profit-making.”

“When the Reserve Bank Bill was before Parliarrph, the majority of members wanted the Governor to be appointed permanently by the Government. Mr Coates broke his promise to implement this. I have not known him to do anything" like that on any other occasion, but the fact remains that members of the Nationalist Party were then w'illing to have the political control which they are now condemning. “In England an Exchange Stabilisa-. tion Committee, with a public backing of £375,000,000, was operated directly by the Government. If a country was., to develop as it should, the Government must control credit. ‘'Falsehood, Campaign.” “The New Zealand Government, in its wisdom, consulted Mr Savage and myself with reference to the application of sanctions in the Abyssinian trouble,” Mr Nash added. “If they imagine we are going to confiscate the savings of the people, how can they trust us with confidential matters of that nature?” “Such advertisements,” said Mr Nash, speaking with heat, “are part of the falsehood campaign, the purpose of which is to put fear in the hearts of investors. If it is pursued, it is the most mean and despicable attempt ever made. in New Zealand propaganda.”