BRETTON WOODS PROPOSALS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23387, 19 December 1945, Page 2

BRETTON WOODS PROPOSALS

Sir, —Mr Wheeler evidently used my recent letter as an excuse to air his idea of the Bretton Woods scheme and commenced by disagreeing with my statements and finishes by stating that he cannot see how it can work. Then, in the course of his letter, he says that gold does not pass between countries to any extent, and that the Bretton Woods scheme is not the gold standard.

For Mr Wheeler's benefit let me quote Mr Morgenthau, former Secretary of the U.S.A. Treasury. He states that of the "44 united nations, so far 34 have accepted gold as the basis,” that “during the last six years the U.S.A, has received 10 billion dollars worth of gold from other countries.” That should be sufficient to show Mr Wheeler that gold is the basis of the Bretton Woods plans, the only difference being this: previously each country had a supply of gold and its money was convertible, but now’ America has nearly all the gold and the money of most nations is inconvertible, and as no one has any credit left this new scheme accepts the currency of each nation provided its value is kept within a certain fixed radius of the Americans’ own valuation of then' gold. It surely must occur to Mr Wheeler that this will deflate the value of everything in this country, both primary and secondary, as well as wages, and thus destroy the social advancement we have made since 1935. The more serious side of it is that America now becomes the great creditor nation of the world and is planning to have the biggest army and navy in history. While Britain was the creditor nation she had the navy to protect her interests, but the Initiative has now’ passed to America, who intends to hold all bases already set up throughout the world, even including the Pacific. This is the beginning of World War lII.—I am, etc., Democrat.