BRITISH BANKS AND THE WAR.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 741, 30 January 1915, Page 5

BRITISH BANKS AND THE WAR.

Whatever may have been the programme of German financiers with the object of overthrowing British credit, they can claim to have ofleeted no real damage. In an address which he delivered at the opening of the Institute of Banknrs in London in November, Mr F. Hugh Jackson, director of the' Bank of England, »aid warning wbb given before the war that when it broke out Germany would make a raid on the institution's gold reserve, but the facts did not support the assumption. In five weeks, including the first week of the war, apart from Franco, Belgium, etc., the Continent —assumed to bo Germany—only took altogetner .£862,000 in golil. During these same weeks the arrival of gold from South Africa and other sources was between ,C 3,500,000 and ,£4,000,000. The bank hud continued to receive large amounts of gold, and then held the unprecedented figure of £69,500,000. Lord Inchcupo, president of the institute, in his opening address said he believed the commercial community freeiy admitted that the banks hod done all in their B power with a due regard to that prudence which they were bound to exercise as the custodians o( millions of Iheir customers' money, to facilitate and help the trade of tho country, and he believed they would eventually emerge from tho grave crisis with a higher reputation than thsy previously held. The action of the Government throughout had been worthy of all praise, and the trade of the country was under a deep debt of gratitude to Mr Lloyd George for the courageous manner in which ho had takled the situation. The™ must necessarily be a heavy burden of taxation on Europeans for many years, and a setting back of international trade, but, given the success which tho Allies'would eventually achieve, they would in course of -time regain a good deal ot the loss.