Australia At a meeting with representatives of the Common- wealth
Bank and the trading banks last Saturday Mr. Scullin, the Prime Minister, and Mr. Theodore, the Treasurer, explained Mr. Theodore's proposal for stabiliz- ing prices as well as the Three Year Plan of retrenchment agreed to at the Premiers' Conference. The bankers were unconvinced and pointed out that the real trouble was the unceasing claims made on the banks by the Government. According to the Melbourne correspondent of the Times, they said that they could find all the credit required by the producers if only the Government would leave them alone. On Monday the bankers met by themselves, and examined almost exclusively the Three Year Plan. Mr. Theodore's stabilization scheme was apparently left on one side as dead. It is doubtful whether Mr. Scullin will be able to resist the bankers, who decided to insist on reductions in salaries and wages. One rumour is that Mr. Scullin will ask the Labour Caucus to reconstruct the Ministry. Another is that there may be a Coalition Government under Mr. Lyons, the former Acting Treasurer, who recently resigned together with Mr. Fenton, the former Acting Prime Minister.
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