LOAN RENEWAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 July 1939, Page 6

LOAN RENEWAL

MOBILISATION OF OVERSEA ASSETS. SUGGESTION BY LABOUR MEMBER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. In the event of impossible terms being dictated by London financiers to the New Zealand Government for the renewal of the £17,000,000 loan next year, the Government would be justified in mobilising the overseas assets of the people by buying or borrowing them and paying off the whole of the loan, said Mr Nordmeyer (Government, Oamaru), when speaking in the Address-in-Reply debate in the House of Representatives yesterday. Mr Nordmeyer said that he spoke purely as a private member, and not on behalf of the Government.

"If the London financiers attempt to dictate terms that are inimical to this country," he said, "rather than take those terms we should take steps to pay off the whole of the £17.000,000 loan, no matter at what sacrifice. If an emergency situation arose through the deliberate action of the London financiers, this Government should do as the British Government has done in an emergency, and mobolise the overseas assets of the people of the country, either by buying them or borrowing them, and thus pay off the whole amount. I hope the Government will not consent to hard terms. I hope it will say ‘no surrender' if the attitude of the financial interests is to dictate. I hope the Government will refuse to accept terms that are dictated."