AN UNGRACIOUS SUGGESTION.

Waipa Post, Volume 45, Issue 3267, 13 December 1932, Page 4

AN UNGRACIOUS SUGGESTION.

OFTEN it is hard to take the Leader of the Opposition seriously, comments the Wellington Dominion, and points out that in the debate on the Finance Bill, for instance, Mr Holland asked the Minister of Finance whether he would cause a Note couched in similar terms to the British Note to the United States to be sent to Great Britain in respect to New Zealand's debt there, with a view to easing the position of the Dominion in the present crisis. Mr Holland should know that the British Note related to War debts only and that Britain has already excused New Zealand in payments under this head. Mr Holland would put New Zealand in the absurd position of asking for relief she is already enjoying. Last financial year the saving to the Budget was £825,000, in the current year it is £1,650,000, and next year will be £825,000. In addition the State Advances Office is spared a considerable sum. These facts have already been officially stated. It is therefore inexplicable that Mr Holland by his question should create the impression that Britain is seeking relief from America she is not ready to grant us. Not dnly is she willing to do so, but she has done so. The trouble is that while she has excused us paying for another year, Britain has not been excused by the United States. Since Britain probably extended the moratorium to New Zealand in the expectation of a similar extension by America, the Dominion should be considering whether she should offer to resume War-debt payments as Britain is forced to do. As it is, by her own magnanimity, Britain has been left in the lurch. It would have been a gracious and fitting act if, instead of suggesting that New Zealand send a Note to Britain, Mr Holland had moved a resolution acknowledging the Motherland's, generosity.