“UNDERMINING MORALE”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26607, 1 November 1947, Page 7

“UNDERMINING MORALE”

PRIVATE AUSTRALIAN BANKS PROTESTS AGAINST STATE CONTROL Rec. 8 p.m. CANBERRA, Oct. 31. The private banks were trying to undermine public morale to defeat the Bank Bill, said the Minister of the Army, Mr C. Chambers, in the House of Representatives. He claimed that if the banks survived they would fight to regain control of credit, which the 1945 Banking Act took from them., “ From the moment the Prime Minister announced the Government proposal to nationalise the banking system, a carefully-organised campaign of wilful misrepresentations has been waged by private banking institw tions,” he said. He charged them with “ having waged it by 1 every known means of publicity in an attempt to undermine public a P d (v f n^} 1 e a n people into the belief that the longoverdue monetary reform is contrary to their best interests. The signatures on the petitions of protest to Parliament and to Mi Chiflev presented since the announcement on August 16 of the proposals f nationalise banking are reliably estimated to number 365.000 lnere nas been some duplication, but it is believed that more than 350.000 electors have recorded their protests. No petitions have yet been submitted to Parliament by Labour members but Mr Menzies has submitted petitions from two Labour electorates.