FOUR GOOD POINTS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 300, 18 December 1931, Page 5

FOUR GOOD POINTS.

Banker Optimistic About World Recovery. PRESTIGE OF ENGLAND. (Special to the “ Star.”) WELLINGTON, December 18. Four events which he considered essential for the recovery of the world were outlined by Mr J. T. Grose, general manager of the National Bank of New Zealand, at the end-of-the-year function of the Wellington Harbour Board. Mr Grose said that they were all seized with the gravity of the position of the world. He had read reports by economists and financiers until he felt like throwing them aside. It was a difficult and complex problem, but he believed that the world was moving towards better things. England had been forced off the gold standard as the result of difficulties in connection with short-term loans. Some of the debtors could not pay her, and people who had lent money on short-terms had become anxious. As England was the financial centre of the world, there had been a great deal of short-term foreign money there, and had been withdrawn. As a result, the drain on the gold reserves had been so severe that the gold standard had to be abandoned. War Debts Moratorium. However, there were factors that would make for the betterment of the position, and in his opinion the rehabilitating of the world depended on a sequence of events. The first of these would be a moratorium in respect of the payment of war debts, and they had already had an instalment of this in the Hoover plan. Secondly, there would have to be a scaling down or writing down of war debts, and he did not think there were insuperable difficulties in the way of such an operation. Thirds, creditor nations would have to stop amassing the gold of the world. Gold was the final measure by which debts were paid, and that money would have to be lent on long-term loans. This had been England’s policy, and upon this policy she had built up her commercial supremacy. Fourthly, these long term loans would not. be possible until international tariff barriers were broken down. These four points were essential for the solution of the depression. He believed that England, in going off the gold standard, had taken a step that would ultimately lead to a conference of the nations of the world, and that the results of this conference would be a gradual improvement of conditions. “ I think that England in the near future will recover her position,” he said, “ and that before long you will find that the pound sterling will be a better investment than the dollar or the franc.” (Applause.)