LEAD FOR THE WORLD

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 37, 14 February 1933, Page 7

LEAD FOR THE WORLD

BRITAIN AND AMERICA

CONFERENCE HAILED

LONDON, 3rd February. Approval of the lead to be given the world by Britain and the United States was expressed by a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Eobert Home, in a statement broadcast to America. Welcoming the Financial Conference at Washington, Sir Bobert said he was convinced that, even if no other countries allied themselves, an Anglo-Anieri-ean declaration of an intention to raise the wholesale prices of commodities, and to shape monetary policy accordingly, was a movement in the right direction. Many people believed that the rehabilitation of silver would help more than anything to raise prices and restore trade. He hoped the question would bo pressed in Washington, since the restoration of a portion of silver's normal value would immediately actuate an increased purchasing power and precede prosperity. The amounts yielded by England and America -if war debts were cancelled could not greatly differ. They should act unitedly, because civilisation was at stake. There is, no doubt, little difference between the ideals of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, the head of the Midland Bank, Mr. Reginald McKenna, and Sir Eobert Home, says "The Times" in a leading article, but a divergence of opinion appears regarding the means of restoring confidence.. No tradition should obstruct measures for relieving unemployment. The signs of better times require every reinforcement which the Government can give, and it should, therefore, demonstrate that it intends to organise Britain and every amenable part of the world into an economic whole. Within this area there is room to expand production, improve distribution, and prevent the monetary cause of a renewed collapse of prices. Besides the raising of prices, taxation may be reduced. The "Daily Mail" urges that the balancing of the Budget must not be let slide in the hope that currency manipulation can right matters; "We shall not return to prosperity by a recourso to quack measures," says the paper. , ■