Untitled

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20875, 18 May 1931, Page 9

Need of Higher Commodity Prices.

The present scales of wages could not be maintained unless something was done to raiso tho prices of commodities. The great need of the world was higher price levels.

Mr. Darling outlined his scheme, which contemplated the formation of an Empire Bank, which would make possible a. bimetallic basis for currency, silver being restored to its place alongside gold, with a value in the ratio of one to 20 in favour of gold, instead of the existing ratio, in which gold is 70 to 80 times as valuable as silver.

This would restore to India and other countries using a silver currency tho wealth of purchasing power which they enjoyed before the deflation of their metal. The restoration of silver would mean, of course, an immediate enhancement in wealth of those holding silver, but it would bo permanent, and would enable these people to purchase with their increased wealth.

If tho Empire took the lead, Mr. Darling said ho thought all portions of the world which use silver currency would join in the movement. He hoped the United States would join, in view of the immense international debts. Debt Payments in Silver. Should silver begin to slip in value compared with gold, it could bo regulated by the nations accepting debt payments in silver. A big step in the proposal would be tho immediate acceptance of debt payments in silver by the United States and Britain.

With regard to the proposal for an international conference, Mr. Darling said that before the conference could meet and work out the remedy, he was afraid tho ship would have foundered. Under his scheme a super-bank of tho Empire, to belong io the Governments of the Empire, would be established in such a wav that no single part of the Empire would have control.

The bank would act as an automatic adjustment- machine between the two metals. The bank must have something with which to purchase gold and silver. He suggested that the bank should have a book-keeping unit, which ho had termed the rex. It would require 225,000,000 rex to take over all tho monetary gold in the Empire. The offices of the bank would bo established in London, and in convenient parts of the Empire and India. Ihe bank would purchase gold at tho rate of 113 grains per rex. There would lie established a fixed price for silver at one-twentieth that of gold. The Under-Secretary of State, Mr. W. R. Castle, states that the United States is prepared to take part in an international conference to discuss the problem of silver.