A credit had been arranged with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who had undertaken to give the Bank of England a revolving cevedit of $200,000,000 for two years from May 10 and a second arrangement with a syndicate headed by Messrs. J. P. Morgan & Company y's Government direct for a revolving credit of $100,000,000, lao for two years. Interest in ich case was payable when the credit was drawn upon at one per cent. above the Federal Reserve iscount rate, with a minimum of four per cent. and a maximum of six per cent, of, if the Federal Reserve rate should exceed six per at the Federal discount rate.
before if Britain did not use these credits no interest was pay-in which event, with the Morgan loan open to the British (Government, there would merely be 'a very small commission on the right of call on the mone: -Colonel Guinness hoped that i f the urgency the House would pass the measure with The Government did not They believed that Britain
power being at parity and that in reached a stage of purchasing the long run the producer would have more to gain from the security of a gold standard than from bank-
Jaw, have withdrawn and hoarded gold against the date of free export, namely, January, when the normal demand for bullion would be high. He insisted that no country in the world was less able to afford to diverge from economic facts than Britain.
As regards the allegation that the Jdecision would shackle them to America, the Chancellor said that would certainly shackle them to ally believed that the only oasis offering permanent security.
The Bank Rate Mr, Churchill knew nothing that would justify an increase in the bank rate in the immediate future, Indeed the situation was stable and everything tended to show that the transition to gold had been effected up to the present—he was not going to prophesy about the future—with tease and success. He declared that! Britain was not the only financial centre in the world. She was the centre of a wide Empire, If we detached ourselves from their movements, we ran the great risk of becoming isolated and of loosening the bond, whereas fortification of this bond was indispensable to our well-being. Mr. Churchill "scouted the suggestion that Britain might be unable to hold her own Transatlantic influences pointed out that Britain still' ce trolled a vast amount of t business. She had magnificent credits and also £3,000,000,000 of Foreign investment and held £165 }000,000 of gold. The Dominions held £107,000,000.. The Empire sny plied 70 per cent. gold.
The Backing of the Dominions Mr. Churchill then cited instances lof the pre-War discrepancies between British and Ameri price levels. Their normal and timely readjust ment in order to disprove absolute equation of prices was essential to {the restoration of the gold standard.
In conclusion the Chancellor declared that the Dominions united were an enormous power, great, in-trieste and comprehensive enough te exist side by side in amicable a: sociation with an even larger Jeconomie financial power without their own essential independence being prejudicially affected.
Later. ing into
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.