GOLD

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 108, 29 December 1931, Page 4

GOLD

In some things the world is very slow to learn. One of j the things which England apparently is still the only country to j understand thoroughly is the use and value of gold. Other nations j notably the United States and France apparently cling to a belief j that gold, as such, has an indestructable value and that its meie j possession, apart from the use to which it is put, means wealth and power. The United States, at the moment the world s creditor, continues to dun its debtors to the verge of their collapse, demanding payment accordiixg to contract in gold, while at the same time, the greatest miser in history, it hoards idle in its coffers the greater part of the world' s total supply of the precious ; metal, preventing its circulation and thus largely making impossible compliance with its demands. On the other side of the Atlantic France, the "victim" of the Great War, gives equally free rein to her own national passion'for hoarding, and with marked success. Being a debtor, however, France to do this has had to employ methods not usually looked upon with iavour by men or nations. Bluntly put, if America's methods are strongly suggestive of one Shylock, France's are a cross between those of a whining mendicant and a professional bankrupt. By a vociferous and exaggerated emphasis of her suiferings through the war she has played on the sentimental sympathies of her ereditors, which is to say, her late allies and fellow sufferers, to her very material profit, while at the same time, by the manipulation of her currency she has contrived to bilk those same allies of a considerable portion of their just claims against her. For such action on the part of ' two great and proud nations there must be some very compelling reason. The dislike and contempt it engenders must inevitably entail risks _ for the future no less serious than the difficulties ifc has created in the present. In justification of his attitude, Uncle Sam has so far been content to rely chiefly on the, in his case, characteristic and superflcially convincing, commercial argument that the debts of an honourable man must, no matter what the circumstances under which they were contracted, be paid in full at any sacrifice. France on the other hand, that argument not suiting her for obvious reasons, directly and indirectly cites her own history in justification of her uncompromising attitude regarding reparations, the chief source of her present gains. In 1871, when lying helpless at the feet of Prussia's newly created German Empire, oue of the penalties inflicted with intent to curb, if not to cripple her, was an indemnity of £200,000,000. This she paid in gold within 20 years, growing more prosperous, richer and more powerful while she did so, despite the fact that the wTorld had been staggered by the amount of the indemnity. What she herself had done others could do and she had no intention of permitting Germany to follow her example and perhaps in turn take her revenge within a generation. The argument would be more convincing were the circumstances less dissimilar. The truth, the real inspiration of the attitude of both France and America is more likely to be found in the history of England's part in the Great War. Ag the world's richest and commercially most powerful nation she really dominated the world situation. Her riches were measured in terms of gold and her commerce had been built up upon a f oundation of gold values. It was not until the astuteness of the American business men had praetically forcpd her to guarantee immense debts for her Continental allies, debts which they had no reasonable hope of paying, that this supremacy was threatened. America and France, both nations of boundless ambition, see this and it is b.ecoming increasingly clear that their whole policy since the war has been directed to securing for themselves the position once held unchallengeably by England. What they have both overlooked, however, is the fact that England won her pre-eminence by the active use of her gold. They have hoarded theirs in idleness and so, mstead of the prosperity which England enjoyed and shared with the world, they have created a chaos which threatens to wreck our civilisation.