LARGE SCALE FINANCES

Taranaki Daily News, 26 September 1930, Page 7

LARGE SCALE FINANCES

FRENCH GOVERNMENT PLAN REDEEMING THE 1915 RENTS' BRITISH HOLDERS’ CLAIMS PAYMENT IN GOLD URGED By Telegraph-Press Assn.—Copyright. Paris, September 24. It is learned from official sources that the French Government contemplates a large scale financial operation as soon as conditions are favourable. It is believed it may comprise a redemption of part or whole of the 1915 5 per cent, rentes. It belatedly leaked out that in this connection the Government in July received a note from Mr. Philip Snowden (British Chancellor of the Exchequer) backing the claims of British holders of the rentes, issued during the war, and amounting to 1,642,000,000 francs, that they should be paid on the gold basis instead of with stabilised paper francs, which are worth twopence, compared with tenpence before the war. It is recalled that France unyieldingly insisted on borrowers repaying on the gold basis, yet she refused the same right to British holders. It is admitted on behalf of British holders of the rentes that they have no legal claim, but it is urged that a strong moral claim exists, accentuated by the reflection that had Britain insisted on full payments of the French war debt, France would not now be the largest gold-holding country in Europe, with no unemployment, while Britain would not be under such a staggering incometax and would not have such a huge number of unemployed.