BANKS AND POLITICS

Southland Times, Issue 22491, 28 January 1935, Page 7

BANKS AND POLITICS

NATIONALIZATION PROPOSALS. INTERFERENCE RESENTED. (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) London, January 25. At the annual meeting of Lloyd’s Bank, Mr J. W. Beaumont Pease, who presided, referring to the proposals for nationalizing industry and banicing, said that party politics, as such, had rightly been eschewed by bankers generally, but when the conducting, indeed the continued existence of their business, was made a political issue the question could not be ignored. Discussing what was behind the campaign in Australia for nationalization, Mr Beaumont Pease said it was submitted that in periods of active trade and high prices the banks encouraged clients to borrow more than they should, thus putting such a load of debt round their necks that agriculture and industry were unable to support it, and when prices fell the banks refused requests for assistance. He could find very little evidence to support this view. Indeed, he gathered that cries similar to that of “grow more wheat and eat more bread” were not raised by the banks, hut by the politicians themselves.