INDIAN CURRENCY AND FINANCE.:
It;would be difficult to find a better or fairer review 9f_the financial and commercial situation in India than that which was presented at the recent annual meeting of the Mercantile Bank of India by the Chairman, Mr. J. M. Ryrie. Space will not permit my commenting upon the many good points made by Mr. Ryrie in his speech, which should be carefully perused by all interested in 'business and finance in the East, but I would like just to comment upon the fairness with which Mr. Ryrie dealt with the Indian Government measures for dealing with the currency situation. In the first place, he entirely endorsed and supported the decision to establish the eighteenpenny rupee, showing the advantages as compared with the return to ls. 4d. Mr. Ryrie also supported the Government's measure for a Central Bank for carrying out the currency measures, but at the same time, he was equally emphatic in challenging one or two points of detail. He insisted among other things that the -central bank must confine its operations to central banking and not •enter into competition with the outside banks for ordinary commercial business, and, in the second place, he expressed the view that the amount of the reserves which outside banks were to be called upon to keel') permanently with the Reserve bank represented a heavy tax upon banking, and was a' measure likely to interfere with the legitimate demands for cash in India.
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