Winston v. Monty
Winston will never realise that he is not Governor of the Bank. As regards Parlia- ment, W. is absolutely entitled to say that it has never been the practice of the Bank of England, an independent bank fixing its own discount rate, to consult the Treasury, that it did not do so on this occasion, and that there was no reason why it should have. He would be very foolish to dissociate himself from sound finance by denouncing the Bank. The effect on national credit abroad would be exceedingly bad, and many of the good effects of the high rate, e.g. retention of balances here and improvement of exchange, would be undone.
Niemeyer has a lesson for our own times:' if we are going to put up interest rates to defend sterling, it will be more effective and, in the end, cheaper to do it as if we mean it. But there was no reconciling Churchill to a two-man act in which his was the straight, or supporting, role. His resentment of Norman and the Bank grumbled on. Unable' to help the Polish leader, Sikorski, over a matter of blocked funds in wartime, he explained: 'Quand je suis en face de la Vieille Dame de Threadneedle Street, je me trouve tout a fait
impotent.' Christopher Fildes
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