PUBLIC OPINION

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20918, 25 September 1939, Page 9

PUBLIC OPINION

As expressed by correspondents whose letters are welcome, but for whose views we have no responsibility. Correspondents are requested to write in ink. It is essential that anonymous writers enclose their proper names as a guarantee of good faith. Unless this rule is complied with, their letters will not appear. STRAWS IN THE WIND (To the Editor) Sir, —Under the above caption In your issue of September 21 our old friend Mr Seymour, staunch advocate of “sound finance,” laugh* to scorn the idea that currency is the driving force behind the present conflict. Let us have a look at the record of the Bank of England. Firstly, the policy of Mr Montagu Norman of granting loans to the British Dominions and foreign countries has seriously impaired the efficiency of British agriculture, for the simple reason that the interest payable to the bank could only be acquired by the sale of Dominion and foreign produce in Britain in competition with the home produce. Another of the fruits of Bank of England policy, and one that is likely to concern very nearly the farmers of New Zealand in the very near future, is the huge reduction in shipping tonnage as compared with 1914. Mr Norman is the gentleman responsible for the policy of breaking up perfectly good ships in the futile effort to maintain profit*. Now the Empire is at war, and if any other institution had so jeopardised the safety of the people of the British Isles as the Bank of England has done, the institution concerned would have been publicly subjected to severe criticism. So long as nations are foolish enough to allow irresponsible individuals to juggle with "the national life blood,” currency, the shadow of real wealth, and elevate that shadow to a god before which the human race must be offered up in sacrifice, either by war or starvation, so long will the present hotch-potch continue. It is a treat to read of the constructive efforts of the Government of Alberta to serve the welfare of its own people rather than engage in the destructive folly of Europe. Alberta is the hope of a distressful world, and those of us who know what is being achieved there f«n afford to smile at the buffoonery of Mr Seymour.—l am, etc., R. G. YOUNG. Gordonton, September 22. ADDITIONAL SERVICE NEEDED (To the Editor) Sir, — Waging war does not mean using additional money; It —— additional human service. Service, additional to that required to maintain the civil population, is required at the front, and the further additional service is required to supply the requirements of those at the front. Issues of additional money could no more supply those services than issues of additional newsprint could supply them. Borrowing abroad gives the borrower, for the time being, the services of other nations, but internal borrowing gives nothing of the kind. Whether we finance the war with taxation or with internal loans, so long as we refrain from borrowing abroad, all the work involved in prosecuting the war and in maintaining the civil population, must be done by ourselves and must be done during the currency of the war. But this does not mean that both method* produce the same effects. To make our maximum war effort we must all work up to our capacity and we must confine our efforts to what is most useful. If additional taxation is given a universal spread, all of us will have pressure applied to us to increase our efforts, and to cut out expenditure on what is least useful, and so the needed change to greater and better directed effort will be secured. Internal loans would come from a limited number of persons. They would, in large part, be drawn from capital that would otherwise have been employed in industry and business and so the nation would be weakened while the needed changes, in effort and spending, would not be secured. Let it once be realised that war means additional and wisely directed effort, and it will be seen that taxation, spread over the whole population, has outstanding advantages as a means of financing war.—l am, etc., J. JOHNSTONE. Manurewa, September 22. FIN ANCING THE WAR (To the Editor) Sir, —Now that we are faoed with the problem of financing a long war, the whole army of currency reformers and money cranks are out to teU us how to do so "on the nod,” and without cost. Might I be allowed to ask each of these people to provide himself or herself with a “costless” suit of clothes, or a frock, before talking about “costless” credit. When they can show readers of the Times that they can get “costless” clothing, they may go on with the campaign. Meantime, I leave them to bay the moon. We have to finance a war. We have never been in a worse financial position for doing so. In 1914 our overseas credit stood high; our taxation was about a quarter of our present taxation; our production costs were low enough to enable primary producers to make both ends meet without much trouble. Today the reverse is the case; our overseas credit has disappeared, and the country has to get John Bull to back its bills; our taxation is already a crushing burden (about £33 per annum per head of population), and cannot be materially increased without crushing industry; our internal production costs have been so inflated as to leave no, or but a small, margin for the primary producers to work on. The following figures derived from official statistics show clearly the financial landslide of the past two years, To save filling up your space with long lines of cyphers I shall quote nearest million only. Reserve Bank, 1935, Government deposits, £7m; June, 1939, £2m; Government advances, 1938, June, £sm; December, £l6m; 1939, June, £18m; sterling funds, 1938, June, £l7m; 1939, June, £6m; overseas funds, all banks, 1934, £4om; 1935, £36m; 1939, £lom. If this colossal fall in overseas funds had taken place during a slump such as we had in 1933-33-