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THE RETURN TO GOLD

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These, in brief, are the consequences inGreat Britain . How will the rest of the worldbe influenced? Not in a uniform way. Letus take first the debtor countries to whomGreat Britain has in the past lent large sums insterling, and from whom interest is due in ster-ling, such as Australia , Argentina, and India.To these countries the depreciation of ster-ling represents a great concession. A smallerquantity of their goods will be sufficient tomeet their sterling liabilities. The interest dueto Great Britain from abroad, which is fixed insterling, amounts to about £100,000,000 a year.In respect of this sum Great Britain now playsthe part of a reasonable creditor who moderateshis claim in view of so great a change in thesituation as the recent catastrophic fall incommodity prices.

When we try to calculate the effect on othermanufacturing countries, whose competition weare now in a better position to meet, the effectis more complex. A large part of the worldwill, I expect, follow Great Britain in reducingthe former gold value of their money. Thereare already signs in many countries that no greateffort will be made to maintain the gold parity.In the last few days Canada, Italy, Scandinavia have moved in our direction. India and theCrown Colonies, including the Straits Settle-ments, have automatically followed sterling.Australia and the whole of South America hadalready abandoned the effort to maintain ex-change parity. I shall be astonished if Germany