HOW BRITAIN'S FINANCIAL CREDIT WAS MAINTAINED

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2320, 30 November 1914, Page 5

HOW BRITAIN'S FINANCIAL CREDIT WAS MAINTAINED

AND A GREAT CATASTROPHE AVERTED WAR CRISIS REVIEWED BY MR. LLOYD GEORGE London, November 27. Mr. Lloyd George (Chancellor of the Exchequer)', speaking in the House of Commons, said: "At the beginning of the war this country could neither buy nor sell, because exchange had broken down, though the whole world owed us money. America owed us £1,000,000,000." , _■ : Hβ assured the Labour Party that the moratorium was not enforced to save a few rich people, but to save British industry, commerce, labour, and life. "With '£18,000,000,000 of assets,, it would havei been criminal negligence to allow the credit of the country to be in doubt for twenty-four hours for. the sake of 350 millions, the most of which was owing to our own peopled . "We decided," Mr. Lloyd George continued, "that the crodit of the State must he maintained «at any cost. Thus the unimpeachable character of the British bill of exchange has been maintained, and the greatest financial catastrophe the world could ever- have seen was averted. The total loss as a result of those bill transactions was about what it costs us for a single week of the war. Between 6evonty and eighty millions of Stock Exchange securities were hypothecated before the outbreak of the war, and if the banks had pressed the bottom would have dropped out of tho market." . , "Supjreme In Trade and Commerce." "The machinery of exchange has been re-established," continued the speaker. "Despite the great world war, we are still supreme in international trade and commerce, and the British money market is bettor than any other .in the world. Others are coming here to borrow, while we are conducting a war costing four hundred or five hundred .millions a year. The fact that the Stook Exchange is closed was a serious deijimont to the war'loan. Had the Exchange been open it would have been for several times over. The smallMnrestor has shown his patriotism by stepping in, and has enabled ns to raise the Irogest sum,of money ever raised for any war, without any of the expedients to which Germany resorted for raising a much smaller, amount at higher interest." • ■ t ~ ■ . The Chancellor added that the war loan had been over-subscribed. The applicants totalled nearly a hundred thousand, of whom there were an enormous number for small amounts. ' ■ i' ' Economic Pressure on the Enemy. Mr. Winston Churchill,, First Lord of the Admiralty, stated that the economic pressure on Germany continued to develop in a healthy and satisfactory manner. The maximum naval reinforcements tho Germans could receive-up to the end of 1915 was three ships, as against the British" increase of fifteen. Britain could afford to lose a super-Dreadnought every- month for a year, without- the enemy losing a ship, and yet be in as superior a position as at tho outbreak of the war in July. ■ . • ■' - ' » ( PAEIS BOURSE OPENS ON DECEMBER 7. ■ - ' (Rec. November 29, 8.35 p.m.) . ' ■ Paris, November 28. . The Bourse will reopen on December 7, for cash' transactions. . " FINANCIAL , PRESS COMMENT.(Reo. November 29, 8.50 p.m.) London, November 28.The financial papers, commenting on (Mr. Lloyd George's statement that tii© Bank of England discounted £120,000,000 worth of bills under the Government's special arrangement, consider that the amount was not, over-large, considering the fact that £500,000,000 were outstanding. ;