REPLY TO RECENT COMMENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 24 November 1943, Page 3

REPLY TO RECENT COMMENT

ITo the Editor’ Sir, —I have just seen the tetter of Mr A. Hunter concerning my Nelson address which you published in your issue of 16th November. Your correspondent considered it his “patriotic duty” to attend my meeting, but apparently did not consider ( it his “patriotic duty” to make sure of his facts before consuming so much valuable newsprint for the publication of his letter. It is a pity that Mr Hunter doubts my statement that Britain helped to finance German rearmament after the advent of Hitler to power, because Mr Hunter shows thereby that he has not the slightest knowledge of his subject. The statement that Britain supplied financial accommodation to Nazi Germany has often been made, and was raised from time to time in the British House of Commons (see Palme Dutt’s “Britain and the Worlrl Front”). The machinations of high finance are usually very secret affairs, but this much is known, and can be easily verified: Under the so-called “Standstill Agreement” of 1931 German importers met their payments for goods imported from Britain by means of money lodged with German banks to the credit of the Bank of England, while the British exporters who had sent these goods received payment for them in Britain from the Bank of England. The debits thus suffered by the Bank of England were partly recompensed by payments made to that Bank by British importers who were receiving goods from Germany. However, as British exports to Germany under this Agreement greatly exceeded German exports to Britain, the German importers had a large debit outstanding with the Bank of England. This debit (representing a balance of trade between Britain and Germany) was treated as a shortterm credit granted to Germany by the Bank of England, and Germany was charged one and one-half per cent, interest on such credits. In 1934, the year after Hitler came to power, the volume of such short-term credits, stood at £64,000,000. And this was only one of the ways in which Britain gave financial accommodation to Germany. If Mr Hunter is interested in the operations of the Standstill Agreement he can consult Paul Einzig and others. To the best of my knowledge, the Standstill Agreement was still in operation in 1939.

Mr Hunter’s remarks about the Soviet electoral system are truly ridiculous, and again show that he has not the slightest knowledge of what he is talking about. In the first place, the “pyramidal system” under which deputies to higher Soviets were elected by the lower Soviets was abolished in 1936 and elections to all bodies, local and national. was made direct, through universal suffrage and secret ballot. Mr Hunter apparently regards Sir Bernard Pares as an “authority” on the Soviet Union; and so he can verify the above facts by reference to Sir Bernard Pares’ book “Russia.” published in 1941. In the second place, the Soviet Union had a general election in 1937. and Britain has not had one since 1935. So why the term “non-election stable government?” I myself would be hesitant to takes Pares as an “authority,” especially an impartial one, since Pares himself has admitted (see. “Russia Admits a Critic”) that during the war of inter veil - tion against the Soviet Republic in 1919. he acted as a special agent for tl' r ’ British interventionists in Siberia agitating for th e overthrow of the Soviet Government. He was also an intimate of the rebel general Kolchak, known to the Russians as “The Bloody One.” However, even a Bernard Pares can learn, as he has admitted in the book just quoted the extremely firm relations that exist between the Soviet Government and the people, and in his latest book he gives a grudging admission that the Soviet Constitution is democratic. Strange, indeed, it is to read from Mr Hunter that “we Anglo-Americans are governed from the bottom up.” If my memory serves me correctly Mr Hunter was very definitely of the opinion that the reverse was the case a little while back when it came to the question of the general elections. I would suggest that when next a public meeting is held in Nelson Mr Hunter should deem it his “patriotic duty” to stay at home.—l am. etc.. HAROLD SILVERSTONE. 7. .llington, 22nd November.