REPLY BY MR COATES

Southland Times, Issue 22362, 29 June 1934, Page 8

REPLY BY MR COATES

“POSITION CHANGED.”

(Per United Press Association.)

Wellington, June 28.

“Those who have followed the statements issued to the Press on behalf of the Importers’ Federation will have noticed how the federation has changed its position,” stated the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates to-night. “It began with a precise statement that professed to set out the cost, direct and indirect, of the adjustment of our exchange rate. A moment’s examination showed that the figures used were fantastic. The statement as a whole was in fact so full of inaccuracies that one could only take a few items and show their absurdity. This was done first with respect to an item of £2,000,000 and then with respect to an item of ovex- £5,000,000. Instead of keeping to figures which at least can be examined (and in the case of the Importers’ Federation can be exploded so readily), the federation in a statement now isused turns to the argument on such matters as “The true exchange rate,” the “law of supply and demand,” and the word “inflation.” On all points their statement is vague and valueless, pax-ticularly if we are not told what meaning the writer of the federation’s statement attaches to these expressions. The impossible position in which they find tlxemselves is illustrated in the final paragraph now issued. They are as positive in asserting that inflation is the danger as they are in refusing to say what they mean by the word. The outcome of the various statements is that the federation has completely failed to substantiate the assertions with which it began.”