ATTACKED MONEY MANIPULATORS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 40, 3 March 1937, Page 6

ATTACKED MONEY MANIPULATORS

-Fihi Aeaedeties.1

Mr Semple Replies lo Bank Officcrs rrotest STAFFS NOT MENTIONED

(By Teleereph-

WELLINGTON, Last Night j A denial that he had made an att&ckj idpon bankers and their staffa is giveaj >by Hon. R. Semple iu % letter to-day r#4 plying to ths New. Zealand Bank Ofi-| cers' Guild proteat against ths ststs^ ment made at Cromwell Gorge. Thsj [Minister says:— . ^'This statement has beea takea froai : its context aud given to appear that ] made au attack upon the gentlemen following the profession of banking and their staffa. I have natioed you have registered your proteat against this alldged statement in tha publie prees. I think in f airness to myself you shouli ihave refrained from doing eo until you jreferred the matter to me. "I have made no attack upoa bankerej iand their staffa, knowing aa I do thatl ibankers and tbeir staffa are merelw iservants and have to prove effieient and) jloyal to those who employ them o;j jotherwise they woifid be looking fof !another job. "I was referring to the group of in« jdividuals who manipulate the eredit and currency of this and every other country in the world " to the advantage of themselves and the disadvantage of t£e great mass of ihe people. There is a great difference betwen those who own and eontrol banking institutions and those who render service to these institutions. "Similarly the statement that I made to the men on the job was on a par with statements I have made in Parliament many times and on thousands of plafcforms in this country. Those of ua who have studied the power of the interaational money trusts of the world know full well that.a great deal of tho world'* troubles. eomes from. the uufaw manipulation and eontrol of the* money power, and to suggest ' that an attack upon the system and those who *own| and eontrol it is an attack upoh the jmen employed in banks is xidiculous ini lthe extreme. "I have ne apologies to offer to Jyonr organisation or to the nation for •any indictment I have made in my ttime •against the manipulation of the money power that has been responsible for the enslavement of mankind through the centuries, and I take it your erganisa* tion is not anxiotifl to defend it either. UZ again affirm that the msa who ia bnilding the highways and byways and Tailways of this country and living in isolated places segregated from the rest of the people^, earving out sui asset to hand to posterity and to serve mankind in his time is more' valuable to tho nation -than any individual who sits behind sealed doors and manipulates tho people's currency and credit which reflects the wealth. that thqr ereate, and who in turn render* no real service. ' 'The concluding paragraph of yooz) letter s^ys, 'It is considered that such) language is unworthy of a Minister ofj the Crown., May I inform your organisation that I as a Minister of thf| Crown am the best jndge as io whatj language I should use that is worthyj of myself as a Minister of the Crewity and I am taking no advice from youfl -organisation or the daily papers as toi how I shall express myself. I will] leave that to the people to judge wheaj election day eomes round."