Gold

HC Deb 13 June 1974 vol 874 cc1802-4

4. Mr. Adley

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will seek talks with the Finance Minister of South Africa on the question of gold as a reserve currency.

Mr. Dell

No, Sir. There is agreement in the Committee of Twenty, in which South Africa is represented, that the SDR should become the principal reserve asset of the international monetary system and that the rôle of gold should be reduced.

Mr. Adley

Following the announcement by the Group of Ten last night, is not there a need to do everything we can to improve relations between Her Majesty's Government and the Government of South Africa? Are not the producers of gold as important to us as are the producers of oil?

Mr. Dell

I see no connection between what happened in Washington last night and Britain's relations with South Africa. There is a generally accepted policy, in which South Africa takes part, that the rôle of gold in the international monetary system should be reduced. Nothing that has happened in Washington has altered that fact.

Mr. Sedgemore

Is my right hon. Friend aware that when Great Britain left the gold standard on 21st September 1931 there were 2,803,522 people unemployed in this country? Is he further aware that certain Powellites on the Opposition benches and the Editor of The Times seek to cure inflation by the creation of unemployment and wish to return to the gold standard as a means of inflicting the discipline of unemployment on the people of this country? Will my right hon. Friend utterly reject that philosophy?

Mr. Dell

We have no intention of curing inflation by an increase in unemployment of the kind referred to by my hon. Friend.

Mr. Hugh Fraser

Is it not time that the Treasury came off cloud 10 or cloud 20 and came down to reality? Value is in gold and not in baskets of bogus currency which is constantly being inflated.

Mr. Dell

I know that that is the right hon. Gentleman's view. It is not the view of the Group of Ten or of the Committee of Twenty. A Private Notice Question has been tabled on what happened in Washington. Perhaps we should leave it until that is reached.