A BAD BARGAIN?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 652, 2 May 1929, Page 9

A BAD BARGAIN?

BANKER ON BRITISH DEBT FUNDING MR. BALDWIN’S DEFENCE (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) LONDON, Tuesday. The Prime Minister, Mr. Baldwin, defended the American debt settlement at the annual dinner of the British Bankers’ Association. Lord Bradbury, iu proposing the toast of the British Government, said he was disposed to think Britain had made a bad bargain in her debt funding arrangements. He also questioned whether the Government had chosen the most favourable moment for the restoration of the gold standard. Mr. Baldwin maintained that in the circumstances at the time it was not an unfair business settlement. Britain was liable for £50,000,000 in interest until the debt was funded or paid. She would never have made any progress in the restoration of the currencies of Europe nor have restored the credit of the City of London to where it stood to-day if the Government had postponed indefinitely either paying or repudiating the American debt in the hope of making a better bargain. The Prime Minister claimed that the financial advantages accruing from the restoration of the gold standard had been considerable. They had secured stable currency, stable exchanges, comparative stability of prices and wages, and a steady and uninterrupted fall in the cost of living. He expressed the opinion that, industrially, the corner had been turned.