FULL OF FALLACIES”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 29 August 1945, Page 6

FULL OF FALLACIES”

ITo the Editor l

Sir, —In your issue of March 13th last there appeared an article by an anonymous correspondent, using the nom dc plume “Real Democracy,” headed ‘‘Challenge to Loose Thinking,” which, inter alia, contained the absurd statement that ‘‘banks do ncit lend deposits.” The* article was sent to Viscount Bledisloe, one of the best-informed and best-educated men in England and the most popular Governor-Gen-eral New Zealand has ever had. His reply is as follows: ‘‘l have read the article, ‘Challenge to Loose Thinking.’ by Douglas Credit or Social Credit enthusiast. It is full of fallacies, none greater than the statement that banks do not loan deposits.” His Lordship was good enough to mail a booklet of Parliamentary Debates, House of Lords, Vol. 123, No. 60, of Tuesday, 16th June, 1942, in which, on pages 402 to 408, all were passages specially marked by Viscount Bledisloe. May I quote the speaker, Lord Wardington, in par. 2, page 406: ‘‘The Chancellor of the Exchequer was abundantly right when he said that the money out of which banks lend, is. broadly speaking derived from the deposits of their customers.” Vircount Bledisloe was also at pains to make marginal notations of caustic remarks made in the House of Lords regarding fatuous quotations, including a reference in the Encyclopedia Britannica, by monetary reformers who have not the remotest knowledge of the rudiments of finance or banking.—l am, etc., ANTI-LIES. Nelson, 27th Aug.