NIAGARA GOLD AND THE WAR

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 26, 9 March 1942, Page 4

NIAGARA GOLD AND THE WAR

cut of a mine, sunk by another kind of mine, has been recovered at much effort and will eventually be buried again at- Fort Knox, Kentucky, whence any attempt to reach it Avill be foiled by more explosives or water. Since, and while, our leaders continue to regard this artificially overvalued metal as vitally important, I have a practical suggestion to make with the object of preventing waste of potential Avar material. Men and equipment and engineering skill are still engaged on gold production instead of the needs of war and industry. Let vis assess .what is probably there and issue our paper or figures against the assessment. What difference would it have made if instead of recovering the sunken "Niagara" bullion, the Reserve Bank had simply shipped the same quantity from its vaults to the original destination, and shown on its books that the Gold Reserve was held in a safe place off the coast near Wliangarei instead of in vaults at Wellington. We knew it was there, which was obviously all that mattered. We only know by report that immense quantities arc stored at Fort Knox. We never see it, and do not want to. Of course it is the men and materials which really count. Without them the paper money or figures issued against the gold would have no value in war or peace. When we learn and apply that, we shall have destroyed one of the enemy's greatest advantages. Yours etc., JOHN! A. HOG AN-

Sir, —A great deal of newspaper space has been devoted to the recovery of the Niagara gold. Those concerned are entitled to' all praise and admiration for their triumph over unprecedented difficulties, but just what has this got to do with the war effort or with the nation's real resources? Nothing has been added to the available supply of men, material or equipment, and now that the United States, the ultimate buyer of gold, is in the war, we can not even claim to be able to obtain more material aid from a non-belligerent through the expenditure of ships, men, equipment and explosives used in the twelve months of salvage work. One editorial on the subject makes the remarkable claim that "if one-: half the losses by mines and sub- • marines could be quickly recovered, there would be enough finance available to run the war for a long time." Does "finance" run the war? Is our war effort dependent on the supply of a yellow metal, or paper, or figures, or on men and material?. The ' people' of the Democracies are coming very anxious about this. Our opponents have so clearly subordinated monetary arrangements to facts. We believe we are as strong and courageous as they but somehow they consistently get ahead of ns, and all the arguments of orthodox economists fail to carry conviction when the enemy's unorthodox methods stand so many tests. A report states "at times the Claymore carried sufficient high explosives to have given Berlin a major air raid." What did we gain by dumping those explosives into the sea off Whangarei instead of using them against the enemy? Is Hitler wasting his Avar material and manpower and shipping on this sort of thing? I doubt it. So £2*4 millions of "Gold," taken.