Blackmail Alleged: London Financiers And New Zealand

Northern Advocate, 19 June 1939, Page 5

Blackmail Alleged: London Financiers And New Zealand

[lndependent Cable Service .] LONDON, June 18

“Reynold’s News” publishes on its front page an attack on financiers for their attitude to New Zealand, under the headline: “City versus New Zealand: Blackmail of Dominion.”

The paper says that behind the threat by the Federation of British Industries to boycott New Zealand until the import restrictions are lifted “lies a discreditable story of financial and political intrigue to discredit the New Zealand Labour Government and force a financial crisis upon the country. The : attack centres on the efforts of Mr Nash to convert the £ 17.00.0,000 loan. The city’s reply is a definite refusal to enter into negotiations until .New Zealand abandons or modifies her social reform legislation and accepts the control of the banks in financial dealings.” “Thus the New Zealand Government must continue to over-import, fui’ther reducing the favourable trade balance, and simultaneously accepting the financiers’ help by agreeing to their terms.

“The city is blackmailing a Government whose' only fault is that it Is Socialist, despite the fact that New Zealand is already Britain’s best customer.”

“Conversion at present has not the slightest chance of success. The bankers intend to demand their full pound of flesh. Not a penny will be lent.

“The British Government is refusing to sanction long-term credits while Labour rules.

“The nation is being held to ransom in the interests of British monied dnd trading classes. “It is necessary to reveal the full facts in order to defeat the sordid intrigue. Parliament can force Sir John Simon, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Mr Montagu Norman, Governor of the Bank of England, to give the Dominion a square deal.

“The Dominion has shown that it is wholeheartedly behind its Government, for which reason it is wrong for the British Cabinet to step in between a self-governing Dominion and its leaders.”