AUSTRALIAN CREDIT

Taranaki Daily News, 5 December 1930, Page 15

AUSTRALIAN CREDIT

DAMAGE BY EXTREMISTS.

MR. SOULLEN’S WORK SPOILED.

“Australia had bright prospects of raising money abroad wheii Mr. Sculliii ■arrived in England, but the actions of the extreme wing of his party have done much to destroy the' country’s credit,’’ said Mr. A. Spitzer, manager of the Comptoir National d’Escompte de Paris and vice-president of the French Chamber of Commerce, on his arrival in Sydney last week. Mr. Spitzer said that the banks of France; New York, and, to a lesser extent, England, were concerned about the vast quantities of gold lying idle in their vaults. 'While it remained there it did no good and numbers of nations were temporarily embarrassed for want of money. The bankers thought, that these countries could be assisted by lending them'this gold at low rates of interest. The banks would benefit 'by the prosperity of the countries they had assisted, and would not have so much useless gold on their hands. Loans had been- arranged with small European States, such as Bulgaria and Gzecho-Slovakia, and Australia would have had no difficulty a short while ago in securing assistance at low interest. When the banks of America, France and England had practically completed arrangements to lend money to those countries that desired it' the Labour caucus destroyed the good work of the Prime Minister who established Australian credit. Talk. of • repudiation and not paying interest on loans when they fell due caused a pronounced, cooling in the regard in which Australia was held.

Mr. Spitzer said he noticed the change very keenly. When he visited France in 1926 that country was parsing through a difficult time, but there was implicit trust in. the stability of Australia. Four years afterwards that country was regarded with a certain amount of doubt. The utterances of Labour politicians made bankers and the general public think that Australia intended to repudiate loans or in some way give less \to investors than they should receive if the conditions of promotion were strictly observed.