ENGLAND’S STANDING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23332, 26 October 1937, Page 10

ENGLAND’S STANDING

LEADERSHIP IN COMMERCE “ FINANCIAL CENTRE OF THE WORLD” “There is no doubt that just now London is the financial centre of the world, and there is no doubt that Great Britain is standing as much for world peace through her rearmament programme as she does for financial security with her Gold Equalisation Fund,” said Sir William Hunt, vicepresident of the New Zealand Employers’ Federation, in an address at the annual meeting of the Canterbury Employers’ Federation. Sir William Hunt said that the currency problem all over the world was the greatest problem in finance and business to-day, and England was the leader in trying to solve this problem. Currency had always been a major problem, but it was bigger today than it ever had been. The measure of value was always changing, and the world had not been able to arrive at a measure of value that would remain stable. The, important countries were busily engaged in trying to find a new currency technique, and they had no precedent to guide them. Many countries now had an equalisation fund to establish currency at a stable level, and of these funds that of England was the biggest. It now stood at £575.000,000, and it was her work in seeing the possibilities of this fund and of building it up that accounted for her leadership in the financial world. The operations of the fund, he remarked, were secret, but it was thought that most of it was invested in gold Gold to the value of £700,000,000 sterling was now held in England. Of this, £8.000.000 to £9,000,000 was “ refugee money ” from other countries, and if there should be a run on this money England would have no difficuiiy in meeting the demand. It had been the run on “ refugee money ” that had forced England off the gold standard previously, and obviously she did not mean to be caught again by such a situation. Sir William Hunt said that in the days before the depression England had had a surplus of revenue for investment abroad, but since the slump she had not lent any money abroad without the consent of the Treasury, and that consent was given only very tardily, because new loans abroad meant an export of capital. Before the slump England had had about £200,000,000 invested abroad, but now only renewal loans were being put through in London. It was remarkable, he added, that the London businessman thought of the world as his district, and it was much to his credit that he had this outlook. The businessman ii] Chicago, for instance, thought only in terms of the Middle West, but the London businessman had no such limitations, and was as interested in the financial conditions of New Zealand as of any other place.