20 JUNE 1931, Page 34

Finance—Public & Private

Credit and Confidence

SLOWLY but surely we are awakening to a realization of the supreme part played by credit and confidence in ministering to the prosperity and happiness of nations. The refusal in 1914 of Germany to acknowledge the sanctity of a treaty contract—the "scrap of paper "- involved the world in four years of bloodshed, and the events of those four years shattered international confidence, both political and financial. That confidence has never been completely restored, and at the moment its evil results are being expressed with particular force in some of the Central European countries, while, as we know, this country and even the United States are experiencing unprecedented industrial and financial depression.