Flight of Capital

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19803, 3 December 1938, Page 18

Flight of Capital

Sir,—A few weeks ago you reported the Hon. W. E. Barnard as stating thai a man who made his money in the country and then sent it overseas was a traitor, and should be treated as such. The usual punishment for a traitor is death and it surprised me that Mr. Barnard should prescribe suen treatment for a man whose only “crime” was to do what he lilted with what was his. Now we find the Rt. Hon. >M. J. Savage urging British people .to inves. their capital in the Dominions and waxing eloquent on such a policy. What I want to know is this: If a man who makes his money in New Zealand and sends it overseas should be shot as a traitor, what would be the just punishment of a man who made his money in England and then sent to overseas to New Zealand? Surely .the some rule should apply in both cases; yet if Mr. Barnard’s law was applied Mr. Savage’s fervent wishes could not be fulfilled. Incidentally, if this rule had been applied in the past and Englishmen had been prevented from sending money away from the country in which it was made, how would u have been possible to develop New Zealand to its present state? When New 'Zealand in the near future goe. on the London market for a large loan will Mr. Bainarcl fell Englishmen tha. they should be treated as traitors .1 they subscribe to it? And if he does, what will Mr. Savage say to Mr. Barnard? ENQUIRER.