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Hokitika Guardian, 25 February 1933, Page 4

“The essential (preliminary to success at the World Economic Conference is the .stabilisation ot the paper currencies,” Sir John Wardlaw-Milne, M.P., wrote in a letter to the Times last month. “Great Britain, as the natural leader of the sterling coun? tries, could, by taking the initiative, •secure stability within and, to a large extent, outside the Empire. In short, , the. British Empire, by creating an organiso-i sterling union, will \p in a position to meet the World Economic Conleronce lmlf-way with a fait accompli It i.s surely hotter to or asp the British .substance at once than to wait for the terrestrial shadow. What we can do is to plan, an expansion of purchasing power at home and create a monetary system for the Empire which, incidentally, need not encroach upon the right of every member to nur’.age its own. banking flairs. (Nor is any one unit of currency throughout the Empire necessary, and dollars •in Canada and rupees in India, for example, would continue in use as hitherto.) In a drifting world an Empire currency c "roe merot would form a v.nclous of stability. Other .sterling countries would welcome the advantages to be gained by am approximately fixed exchange between their moneys I ?nd those of the powerful group which forms the British Empire, and in this way the fc:irdation.s would he laid for the return of that world confidence which is the basis of credit and increasing consumption. The setting up 0 f this machinery for the sterling union

will result in other nations, still on gold, -seeking to fix tile basis of exchange between their moneys and sterling. This i? a. matter in which the World Economic Conference can and should arrive*-at definite decisions.”