The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1927. MONEY AND POLITICAL INTERESTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 7 November 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1927. MONEY AND POLITICAL INTERESTS.

It was officially announced at AYa.sliinton last month that during all American post-war records in foreign loans have been broken. In the short space of three weeks foreign loans to the amount of £50.000,000 have been floated, the total for tlu* corresponding month last year being about £35,000,000. Ten years ago, during the crisis of the Great War, America lent the Allies in one month £75,000,000. But in time of peace the total foreign notations recorded for the current month are unparalleled and unprecedented, and those figures have provided American financiers and politicians with an excuse for patriotic rhetoric which they have I icon quite unable to resist, The American Bankers’ Association is now holding its annual convention, and the president, ui discussing the financial situation, laid special stress on the extension of financial aid to tho lest of the world by the l nited States. Nearly every member of the League of Nations, he said, lias borrowed from the American people during the past three years, Germany alone taking a billion dollars. There is, therefore, sonic ground for bis rather flamboyant description of the l nited States as “the world”.s banker and custodian of the world’s credit” at the present time. But such advantages and privileges as-the United States now enjoy in the financial world carry with them, remarks an exchange certain definite responsibilities. If the American people lend money abroad they will naturally take an interest in the safety of their investments, and they will insist that their Government shall protect their rights accordingly. The president of the Bankers’ Association therefore maintains that the inevitable effect of these new financial development must be to break down the policy of isolation and detachment which the American Government has hitherto followed and to compel tho American people to concern themselves more directly and intimately with world affairs than ever before. Though we are far from accepting the favourite Marxist doctrine that a country s foreign policy is regulated entirely by economic and financial considerations, it will be admitted that there is a considerable force in Air r i raylor’s contention, It would be difficult to say how far the investment of capital in China or Africa, for example, has affected the policy of the Great Powers in dealing with these countries. But it is at least certain that governments are always to some extent amenable to pressure exercised by financiers and bond-holders for the assertion of their rights and the protection of their holdings. In that sense it is clear that the Americans, by lending freely to all the world, arc in reality “giving hostages to Fortune.” and that their present gains may be dearly bought in the future by their enforced surrender of their dearly-prized immunity from “foreign entanglements.”