PAPER MONEY ISSUE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 355, 16 May 1928, Page 11

PAPER MONEY ISSUE

BANK OF ENGLAND CONTROL BILL READ SECOND TIME British Official Wireless RUGBY, Monday. In the House of Commons to-day the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Mr. A. M. Samuel, moved the second > reading of the Currency and Bank Notes Bill. He said the bill proposed to give effect to the long foreshadowed amalgamation of the Treasury currency notes with Bank of England notes. The bill placed the responsibility for the note issue where the actual responsibility lay and must continue to lie, that was with the Bank of England, because the Bank of England controlled the credit. No one who had studied the economic development of Britain in the 20th century could have failed to see the position which the Bank of England had established in the finances of the nation. The country was proud of this bank and it was with full confidence that the Government had decided by this bill to trust the management of its paper currency to the bank. It was empowered to issue notes of the value of £1 and 10s and to make these legal tender for all payments. It was provided that the whole of the profits of issue, both on the new £1 and 10s notes, as well as on the £5 notes issued by the Bank of England, should go to the State. LABOUR AMENDMENT LOST In the course of the debate Mr. Philip Snowden, the former Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, moved as an amendment that the House withhold its assent to the bill in the absence of any policy putting into operation the resolutions passed by the Geneva International Conference in 1922, and until an investigation has been made into the constitution, powers and policy of the Bank of England, in the light of modern developments in finance and industry. Mr. Snowden’s amendment was defeated by 229 votes to 101, and the bill was read a second time.