THE LATE LORD MILNER AND THE WORLD CRISIS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In June, 1920, I sent Lord Milner a copy of a letter which I had written to The Times protesting against the policy of restricting credit. In reply I received the following letter :
" Many thanks for the copy of your letter to The Times. I hopo they will publish it, but I am not sum that The Times is not on the wrong side in this matter. Whether they publish it or not, I can personally make good use of it.
Needless to say I agree with you. Somehow or other we always seem to agree on these industrial and economic questions. Did I not say months ago, in the House of Lords, when there was all that rotten talk about ruin and bankruptcy, the burden of the debt, &c., &c., that ' the one thing which terrified me in looking ahead was the fear of the possibility of a restriction of credit.' I always knew this mad nonsense would come. But I hope the protests of the business community will check it before it goes too far. Hitherto perhaps not much mischief has resulted, for somehow or other the mania for speculation had to be checked, though there certainly ought to bo better ways of checking it than by measures which hit legitimate business at the same time.
My difficulty about all these questions is that I am not supposed to be an authority about them, nor do I claim to be an expert except in so far as common sense and long experience may make one. But I am up against theories strongly entrenched in the Treasury, the Bank and certainly the greater part of the whole banking world, and supported by tons of literature from the abstract school of political economists who have held this country in their baneful grip for nearly a century. It would take a man's whole time to get up a really effective case against such a formidable combination, and, as a matter of fact, my time is almost wholly occupied with work of a different kind—Imperial and foreign questions, with regard to which, I believe I am regarded as something of an authority. I do what little I can, but I am afraid you have in me a loyal but weak ally.
It is clear from this letter that Lord Milner accurately foresaw what would happen if we were foolish enough to restrict credit. The letter is extraordinarily prophetic though written twelve years ago. His warning was unheeded, and ever since the Bank of England and the Treasury have pursued relent- lessly the very policy which he so strongly deprecated.—I am, Sir, &c., Yours very truly, MILNER."
T. B. JOIINSTON.
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