GRACIE FIELDS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21192, 15 August 1940, Page 10

GRACIE FIELDS

CENTRE OF A STORM QUESTIONS IN PARLIAMENT When the English actress Grade Fields and her director-husband, Monty Banks, left for America in July they were not granted permission to take with them 1 more than the £lO prescribed under the regulations, stated the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Captain H. F. C. Crookshank, in the House of Commons, according to the London correspondent of the Sydney Sun. The statement, however, has left many quarters unsatisfied. There | is a belief that special treatment j enabled the pair to remove large ! sums overseas. Captain Crookshank admitted that, last October, however, when Grade Fields was recovering from a serious illness, she applied for a considerable sum in dollars to go abroad, and permission was given for her to take £BOOO sterling. It was expected that she would earn abroad dollars which would be surrendered to the State. Monty Banks also applied for the transfer of £20,000 sterling to America. His considerable dollar

earnings as a film producer were not surrendered. They were approached for a settlement of the account when they returned to England, but Banks left the country again without rendering an account or applying for an allocation of exchange. The restriction imposed on the taking out of jewellery did not exist when Gracie Fields left the country last October. “Amazing;,” Says Paper “An amazing story” is how the Daily Telegraph describes, in an editorial, Captain Crookshank’s statement on the complete transactions. “Their extravagant applications to the Treasury,” it adds, “were treated most indulgently. Especially does this apply to Banks, who with a nationality, as Captain Crookshank said, ‘very obscure.’ was permitted to transfer £20,000 to the United States. “It may be asked why, in view of his broken promise to furnish accounts Banks was given an exit permit.” The 8.8. C. has announced the cancellation of Gracie Fields’ broadcast from Vancouver because of “contractual obligations.”