29 MARCH 1924, Page 3

In this connexion an interesting statement was made on the

Italian financial and currency policy by Mr. George Manzi Fe at the annual meeting of the British Italian Banking Corporation. He pointed out that Italy was not attempting to restore the gold standard, since, indeed, she had never had one in the full sense of the term. There had never been a free market for gold as in this country. Italian financial authorities were not even attempting to force up the value of the lira in terms of sterling, for they realized this would have an even more disastrous effect than further inflation. This is encouraging news, and it promises a period of real prosperity in Italian trade which might easily have been nipped in the bud by a hasty policy of deflation.