10 OCTOBER 1931, Page 32

- DEFYING ECONOMIC LAWS.

Now with regard to these two crises I have no doubt whatever of the ability of this country to recover its position even -after allowing for the very real loss of prestige involved in our departure from the gold standard. The causes fOr that departure are known to have been exceptional and'it is now in the power of the people, by their mandate at the Election, to repudiate the Socialists who contributed so greatly to the conditions I have described. _ What, however; would make the position an impossible one -is if at this juncture the Economy campaign to Which the Nationalist Government is com- mitted were to be frustrated by a return of the Socialists to power for—to -put the matter quite bluntly—our solvency - would' be in question while both domestic and external confidence in our credit would be shattered. Those are strong *ords, but the Spcialist manifesto, like the Socialist policy, defies- economic principles and laws, and those principles and laws- Cannot be defied with impunity. In recent events we have had our warning. It must suffice. . - - .