THE BRITISH MORATORIUM.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11111, 28 November 1914, Page 8

THE BRITISH MORATORIUM.

A WONDERFUL COUNTRY.

SUPREME IN COMMERCE.

ALTHOUGH AT WAR.

United Press Association— By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. Received Nov.'2B, 1 p.ta. London, Nov, 27. Mr Lloyd George said the machinery of exchange had been reestablished, and despite the great world war we were still supreme in international trade and commerce. The British money market was better than any other in the world. Others were coming here to borrow, while we were conducting a war costing four or live hundred millions a year. The fact that the Stock Exchange was closed was a serious detriment to the war loan. Had the Exchange been open the loan would have been applied for several times over. Small investors had shown their patriotism by stepping in and enabled us to raise tbe largest sum of money ever raised during any war, without any expedient to which Germany had resorted in raiding a much smaller amount at higher interest. . Mr Lloyd George, continuing, said we ■ decided' that > the credit of the State must be maintained at any cost. Thus the unimpeachable character of the British bill of exchange has been maintained and the greatest financial catastrophe the world could ever have seen has been averted. The total loss as the result of these bills transactions is about what is the cost to us for a single week of war. Between seventy and eighty million stock in exchange securities had been hypothecated be f6re the outbreak of war. If banks had pressed tbe bottom would have dropped out of the market.