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Hokitika Guardian, 3 April 1933, Page 4

In a recent issue of the London “Times,” Mr H. W. A. Retarding, of St. Mortiz wrote on tlie subject of silver coinage in which he said: The value of silver has been reduced artificially simple because the legitimate rWimnd for tlie metal has lean artificially curtailed by so many countries; for instance, Great Britain and Holland hrmc •'M-ir ~cd their silver coinage from about GOO fine to about 500 and 700 fine respectively, thus . reducing the 'lenyin'l for s.lver f r, r coinage purposes by about four-ninths and two ninth-- 'esnectively of the quantities which in the past here required, when silver coins were “real” silver coirs. This artificial reduction in demand is exactly the same disease as the p"e'ont .so-called “over-nroduc-ticn,” which is simply caused by arti-

ficiully creating under-consumption. The low price cf silver is largely—if not wholly—responsible for this underconsumption, iu* it has reduced tire purchasing power of about 50 per cent, of the world’s population, i.c\, the inhabitants of Brit.sh India, China, etc. It has in fact done more than this, ill that Japan, having recently adopted the same' standard as China, is now in a position to complete more fiercely than ever for the trade which the European countries have been accustomed to do with Far Eastern countries; hence the enormously cheap Jopen e-.e cotton goods of which Lancashire has felt the effect. Unemployment in England is therefore closely connected with the artificial reduction in silver consumption.”