RESULTS JUSTIFY IT

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12211, 8 August 1925, Page 4

RESULTS JUSTIFY IT

RETURN TO GOLD STANDARD MR CHURCHILL’S STOUT DEFENCE REPLY TO LABOUR COMPLAINT i _____ By Tilegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright. Reuter’s Telegram. LONDON, August 5. The House of Commons, after a vigorous defence! of the gold standard by Mr Winston Churchill, read a second time the Appropriation Bill. Mr H. B. Lees-Smith (Lib.) attacked the return to the gold standard, as premature. He blamed it for the increasing unemployment and complained that there was no decrease in internal prices to correspond with the increase in external prices. He added: “Everybody knows the Australian Government was told to raise money in New York, and not here.” , Mr Churchill said no responsible party challenged the principle of the geld standard. “If we had not taken this action the rest of the Empire would have taken it without us, and the outcome would have been a gold standard, not of the pound sterling, hut of the dollar.” Among the “solid and remarkable factors to be considered as consequences of the gold standard,”-Mr Churchill mentioned that: — The issues for domestic purposes in the first six months of 1925 exceeded and were more than double the similar issues in the first six months of 1924. Sterling had recovered parity with the dollar, and had established equilibrium with the Australian and South African currencies. The Bank of England’s gold had increased hy eight or nine millions. The general money rate had eased. The general r tendency of foreign countries towards stabilisation had increased for instance, India could now consider sterling the rate at which to stabilise the rupee. ' Mr Churchill added that the coal subsidy was very objectionable, but was greatly preferable to a veiled subsidy on exports.