GOLD FROM INDIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21398, 24 January 1933, Page 8

GOLD FROM INDIA

A powerful ally of the pound sterling "in its struggle with the franc and the dollar," says Sir Robert Johnson, Deputy Master of the Royal Mint, in his annual report, has been the heavy export of gold from India. The movement began immediately after Great Britain went off the gold standard on September 21, 1931. By the end of that year the amount of exported from India had reached £25,000,000, and by the end of last November the total had increased to nearly £74,000,000. "As for many years British India has been known to be a veritable sink for gold, with accumulations variously estimated at from £500,000,000 to £600,000,000 between 1873 and 1931 alone, the importance of this new outward movement and of the consequent decrease in her unprofitable metallic hoards is at once significant and encouraging," Sir Robert Johnson remarks. It means that since September, 1931, India has made available for use an amount of gold approaching the average amount of new gold produced annually, which is about £80,000,000. At the same time, the exports have made no serious inroad into India's hoards of gold ornaments. "The women of India apparently still cling to their bracelets and bangles, and there is no sign of any considerable melting down of native jewellery." The importance of India's export of £74,000,000 worth of gold may be judged from the fact that down to the end of last September, the \Vhole of the ''gold rush" in England had yielded, it is estimated, £7,000,000 in gold coin and about the same amount from jewellery and scrap. Yet so widespread was the response to the "rush" that "the once-loved gold pieces remaining in the hands of the public in this country must by now be few indeed."

THE DANGERS OF RADIUM "The plain speaking which characterised Lord Lee of Fareham's remarks before the annual congress of the British Institute of Radiology is very welcome at a time when over-enthusiasm is threatening to ruin any reputation which radium may possess," the medical correspondent of the London Observer wrote last month. "As Lord Lee pointed out radium is the world's deadliest poison and yet its sale and use are under no control save that exercised by the costliness and the comparative rarity of the element. From the point of view of the lay public it is satisfactory that the chairman of the Radium Commission should authorita-, tivelydenounce the sale of commercial cosmetic preparations containing radium and issue a stern warning with regard to 'quack' remedies. If such preparations contain no radium then they are fraudulent, and if they contain radium they are extremely dangerous. . There are over fifty voluntary hospitals <swning some twelve grammes of radium among them, over which the Radium Commission has, naturally, no control. While the work done with this radium is in many cases excellent, it is also true that some of these institutions, are not adequately ejuipped or staffed for the highly specialised work which they are attempting. Therein lies the possibility of great danger. Lord Lee revealed that the reason for the abandonment of the fourgramme homb at the Westminster 'Hospital was because 'the results were disastrous,' and he emphasised the hope that the use of large amounts of radium would again bo studied when a fully equipped institute and specially trained staff was available. Meanwhile, the policy of the commission is to seek for proficiency with the use of smaller units. There will undoubtedly be some criticism of Lord Lee's suggestions that all radium now privately owned should come under stricter control, but this will only continue to be necessary as long as unskilled persons • are • using radium in a haphazard sort oi way."