DICTATION TO PARLIAMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23896, 25 August 1939, Page 10

DICTATION TO PARLIAMENT

RESERVE BANK DIRECTORS MR J. A. LEE’S CRITICISM 'From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, Aug. 24. “ No board of directors or no manager of any bank has the right to dictate to the Parliament and the people of this country, and the moment Parliament accepts such dictation it will fail in its duty as the people’s trustee,” said Mr J. A. Lee (Govt., Grey Lynn) when referring to the Reserve Bank during the second reading debate on the Finance Bill in the House of Representatives to-night. “ I have no doubt that this injunction will not be heeded in any way,” Mr Lee said, when referring to the warning against inflation contained in the annual report of the directors of the bank. If it is this House is not master of the country’s finances, but two or three gentlemen who have been picked for big jobs will be the masters. Mr F. W. Doidge (Opposition, Tauranga): The Prime Minister agrees with them in the Budget. Mr Lee: He did not say the Reserve Bank credit would not be used. So long as there were idle men and materials and anything could be done by using the credit of the Reserve Bank to build New Zealand, Mr Lee said, he was prepared to use that credit to the extreme limit.

Mr Doidge: We know that, “In this time of emergency,” Mr Lee added, “ I want to appeal to members of the Opposition' in the interests of national unity to ask the financial gangsters who voted for them and who raided our sterling funds to return those funds to New Zealand. Not one member opposite has denounced those people, but I wish members of the Opposition would ask them to return those funds to New Zealand so that if war breaks out we may have those resources in the interests of defence. Is that too much? ”