IMPORTANT SPEECH

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 250, 13 June 1932, Page 5

IMPORTANT SPEECH

(British Official Wireless)

CO-OPERATION ESSENTIAL FOR REHABILITATION OF WORLD ' FINANCE BILL PASSED

RUGBY, Saturday. Mr. Neville Chamberlain, Chancellor of tbe Exchequer, made an i^iportant speecb on tbe third reading of tbe Finance Billr wbicb passed tbe- House of Commons by 409 votes to 34. Tbe difficulties at present being j encountered, he said, were commoa in every country, and were not going to be solved by any Finance Bill introduced in tbis country alone. Co-operation between nations was necessary, and indeed tbe only way in wbicb a solution of tbe prevailing problems could ultimately be found. Referring to the debt charges and the prospects of undertaking conversion operations he said the Government considered the circumstanees favourable, and it would act promptly. Dealing with the general outlook Mr. Chamberlain said some feeling of uneasiness, which did not seem to be well founded, had arisen. He deprecated both breesy optimism and undue pessimism, ■and hoped the House of Commons would keep a balanced , judgment. Comparing the existing situation with that prevailing before the first National Government took office, he said they had got to the position at which confidence had been restored in the eyes of the British people, and in those of the world it had come about to an almost , embarrassing extent. The figures regarding unemployment, which had been rising in 1929 and 1930, had been checked. On the Stock Exchange the price of the 34 per cent. conversion loan, which last August stood at 77 5-8, was to-day at 88. The export of manufactured goods during the first quarter was higher than in the first quarter of last year. Trade Bimmishing It was true that wbile Britain had been gettiag the largest share of it, world trade as a wbole was continualiy diminishing. "In my view there is to-day in Europe a greater approach to unanimity as to the cause of the troubles and the steps necessary to solve the problems than at any time since the war," said the Chancellor. "Next week v/e enter upon a conference at which an earnest endeavour will be made to reach an agreement with the countries directly concerned in the solution of these difficulties, and I feei hopeful about the result. Lausanne may prove to be the turning po'nt in the history of Europo in these clifficult days." Monetary Control They had taken measures, through the monetary poliey, to set the stage for that rise in wholesale prices which all desired. They had held the pound reasonably steady at a level not ineonvenient to industry, and had enacted in this Finance Bill measures designed to avoid speculative fiuetuations in the future value of sterling. They had instituted a system of tariffs on a scientific basis. They had entered upon an era of cheap and plentiful money. They had seen ideas on the monetary poliey in the United States running parallel with their own, and might therefore, especially in view of the conferences at Lausanne and Ottawa, and possibly later in London, think that the series of opportunities would enable them to contemplate the future with 'cool heads and with cautious, but reasoned, optimism.