Facing Facts in Australia Australia is providing for such countries
as need it an instructive object-lesson in methods of economy. The Conversion Loan has made an excellent start, some £150,000,000 of stock being converted the first day into the new bonds at a lower rate of interest. The operation is voluntary till the end of this month, after which the question of possible compulsion in respect of still unconverted holdings may arise. But little use of that expedient promises to be necessary. The conversion applies, of course, only to Commonwealth and State loans raised in Australia itself, not to any floated in the London market. The latter are entirely unaffected except in so far as they benefit from the general improvement in Australian credit. Mean- while, Mr. Lang in New South Wales, dependent on the decisions of the Commonwealth Loan Council for the replenishment of his empty treasury, is being compelled to effect economies on substantially the same lines as the other States, and in return is getting an issue of Treasury Bills approved by the Loan Council and taken up by the Commonwealth Bank. But he is not being given undue rope, only £500,000 being authorized for immediate needs, and the request for another £3,000,000 to meet August and September payments being held over. Mr. Lang is very distinctly "on approval" for the moment.
Previous page
