BANKS AND POLITICS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 358, 20 October 1932, Page 4

BANKS AND POLITICS

Although he has been abjured i and cast from the fold by extreme Labour, there are still very many of the Labour persuasion who will attach weight to the views of the late Chan-

cellor of the British Exchequer, i-'iscount Snowden. Apart altogether from political convictions, Viscount Snowden has distin- ? uished himself as an independent thinker, a man of courageous views, and marked financial ability and his recent observations upon the obsession of the British Labour Party with the alleged "bankers'-ramp" are therefore all the more worthy of note. "Nothing could be more dangerous than to introduce political influence into financial control," he stated in the course of an outspoken criticism of the ranting which eharacterised the deliberations of the recent Bri-

tish Labour Congress, and his opinion has a direct bearing upon pending financial developments ;n this Dominion. One of the planks of the New Zealand Labour Party is the introduction of State control of banking and it is one of which voters, and particularly the business community, have been advisedly chary. Whatever the shortcomings of the present financial organisations in the Dominion may be, it would be a disastrous move to relegate financial control to political hands. A measure of reorganisation is undoubtedly necessary but it lies away from poli- - 'k'al control and not towards it. Painful experience is teaching this country the shortcomings of political administration — shortcomings which would be . uarticularly evident in the highly technical field of financial organisation. Tlie central bank

ment, stipulates complete emancipation from political interference; this is a point very mueh in its favour although it is difficult to see exactly how far it can be carried out. The Country Party during the last election campaign advocated a complete 1 reorganisation of the banking system but also, in a wider field, insisted upon removal from political control. This particular plank of this party' s platform although not widely propounded, received a wide measure of support from sections of the community otherwise at variance in their political views. Meandering in financial fields may very well prove quicksands to elumsy feet, and the Labour Party would be well advised to accept the lesson ■ead by a man who although he may be a viscount and his name anathema to extreme Labour, is still one of the' outstancling fig-