DOLLAR HOLIDAY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 716, 16 December 1933, Page 5

DOLLAR HOLIDAY

("Post" Special Correspondent)

depreciation of currency changes the position NOT SO ATTRACTIVE

London, Nov. 4. Roluetalitly the Amdrican colony is admitting that its financial heyday in London is over as it shapes anew torn and tattered budgets, says the S'an Francisco Chronicle. A year ago, with the dollar at a premium, every 100 dollars pushed across the counter of a bank brought something like £31 sterlirtg; now the 100 dollars buys only about £21, a difference of nearly 48 dollars. That difference has ushered in an era of tightened belts in the American colony, 6000 strong in London alone, but few' individuals are returning to the United States. The depreciation of the dollar, however, has produced one noticeable trend — many American concerns are paying their employees in Britain in sterling. This has been particularly true with concerns whose representatives in England were given salary cuts a year ago when the dollar was at a premium. Calculating their employees' dollar salaries on a basis of what the cost of living is in America, these firms pay sterling figures on a basis of the cost of living in London. United States Government employees, with salaries shaved down as in America, have conducted a campaign to get paid in gold. The answer is understood to have been that until the pound is quoted at 5 dollars, Uncle Sam cannot undertake to pay in gold. Some Americans say that while the pound is below the par 4.86 dollars rate, the dollar-pound rates are much to their disadvantage. Having no faith in index figuies, which they say, ' are not comparable because the basis of reckoning the cost of living in the two countries is not the same, many of them have made their own studies. They compare the Friday evening chain store grocery lists from America with English lists and, quality for quality, pound for pound, can for can, figure they could live more cheaply in America.