OVERSEAS INVESTORS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 244, 15 October 1931, Page 9

OVERSEAS INVESTORS

ATTITUDE TO AUSTRALIA SUSPICIOUS OF POLITICS. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S ACTS The attitude of oversea investors toward Australia as a result of tho public utterances of the Premier of New South Wales, Mr Lang, and other politicians was commented on in Sydney recently by Mr A. Spencer Watts, who was an Australian representative at the recent congress of the International Chambers of Commerce held in Wash ington.

During his visit to the United States and to England and the Continent, Mr Spencer Watts met many prominent financial men and representatives of investors and he was able to gauge closely their feelings regarding the position in the Commonwealth.

“There arc ample funds abroad for investment in Australia, including New South Wales,” Mr Spencer Watts sail. “The general desire is that these funds should be invested through private channels, not through the Governments. To oversea investors it does not matter very much what Mr Lang says, or even what he docs. They at least know where he stands, and what to expect of him if he succeeds in gaining control. Should he even establish a Soviet dictatorship the investor will simply say, ‘Well, my money won’t go there.’ Tho investor would turn to some other country. “But if it was shown that conditions hero were to bo placed upon a sound basis, free from Government interference, then I feel sure that money would flow in freely. The attitude and the utterances of Mr Lang have not been responsible chiefly for keeping down Australia’s credit abroad. There has been something more disquieting. People overseas cannot understand, for instance, the utterances of Federal politicians, who claim to have seen the light and to be able to solve our economic problems. “The action of the Federal Government in introducing repeatedly the waterside regulations suggests to their minds the cloven hoof, and when they learn that the Minister of Markets is suggesting the creation of a Federal wheat pool after the admission of abject fai’ure by similar pools in the United States and Canada they are inclined to wonder whether our politicians are grown-up men. “Another disturbing feature is the persistence of retrospective taxation legislation. The appointment of an Australian as Governor-General, an act which severed a tie between Australia and Great Britain, together with other actions by the Federal Government, were regarded as unwise, and did not assist in restoring confidence.”