TWO BATTLES IMMINENT

Chronicle (Levin), 21 October 1947, Page 5

TWO BATTLES IMMINENT

. (N.Z.P.A.-

Reuter ,

— Bitter Relaiions Over Bank Issue

Copyright )

Received Alonday, 10:30 p.m. SYDNEY, Oet. 20. For the first time since Alr. Cliifiey ;£ momentous statement concerniug the Government intentiou to nationalise private trading banks, most of tlie cards ar-e on tlie table and legal authorities empioyed by banking interests and the political Opposition, are working at ruli pressure to prepare the field for two imminent battles. The first is the Parliamentary one in which the Opposition parti-es will use every device to obstruet the passage of the BI11. Noting the use of the gag and superior Labour numbers in the lirst clash in the House of Representatives last W-ednesday, however, correspondents regard the passage of the Bill as inevitable. Once it is aceomplished ' the legal battle will be joined. Little inforniation is yet available as to the direetion of this count-er-attack, but it is plain that the reacion to Alr. ChifLey's sjieech and to the presentation of the Bill, is ooiicentrating itself about four points. iliese are as follow: — Firstly, Alr. Chifiey has held out an jffer to any private bank which desired to submit voluntarily to nationalisation, that by doing so it will reeeive any moneys connected with the settlement free of taxation. Secondly, the Bill fixes heavy penalties amounting td £10,006 daily for a bank and £1000 daily for individuals, t'or failure to cooperate after the measure is passed. Thirdlv, tlie Bill cr-eates a Federal Court of Claims which will have the linal say in tlie settlement and from the decisions of which there sliall be 110 right of appeal to the Iligh Court. The fourth point, which is atlraeting much coninient at present, is one for >a Parliamentary and election fray rather than a law court. It concerns Alr. Chifiey 's exposition • of the part jilayed by private banks in tlie depression and recovery. Alanv spealcers liave already cliaracterised his remarks as intemperate, misleading and untrue. The offer to waive taxation in the case of a voluntary settlement, is lieing stigmafised by powerful opposition interests as an unvarnished brilie. Att^ition is also drawn to the faet that, in his speech Alr. Chifiey inade no rel'ereiice to the penal ctauses. The setting up of a Court of Claims is regarded by many as an attempt to circuinvent the High Court which precipitated Government action by invalidating an important section of tho Banking Bill of 1945. After a long period in which the Opposition, eager for action, was denied anything but the foggiest target, Arr. Chiflev 's diselosure has precipitated th-e niost violent exchanges. It has made perspnal. relationships between Labour . and Opposition more bitter tlian t'or two decades. It has webled the Liberal and Country Parties into a political fighting foree in which p-ersonal rivalries and jealousies liave been overshadowed. It has convineed the Opposition that the nationalisation of insurance will surely follow if the Banking Act stands in the High Court. Its direct efl'ect on> the average citizen is not so easilv evaluated but the Government believes that if legal battles can be decided and the measurj pushed to accomplishment in a year nationalisation of banking may not b an el-ection issue in September 1949.