HL Deb 21 June 1965 vol 267 cc282-3

2.37 p.m.

THE EARL OF DUNDEE

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have considered the proposals for improving liquidity put forward by the Director-General of the International Monetary Fund, M. Schweitzer, in a public lecture to the French Institute of Banking on June 2, which appear to be far wider than the measures described in the Government's White Paper (Cmnd. 2675) published on the same date; and whether Her Majesty's Government will urgently discuss with other subscribers to the Fund what further measures may now be necessary to prevent a slump in world trade.]

LORD SHEPHERD

Yes, my Lords.

THE EARL OF DUNDEE

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for his affirmative reply. I do not want to press him to say anything that he is not authorised to say, but do the Government agree that if Britain and the United States of America simultaneously try to redress their balance of payments, and if France at the same time goes on making believe that we are on the gold standard, a very severe trade depression is extremely probable? Do the Government think that these measures agreed on at Tokyo and described in the White Paper are anything like sufficient to prevent that?

LORD SHEPHERD

The noble Earl is quite correct in suggesting that the action taken by the United States of America and ourselves to redress our severe balance-of-payments position does affect the world liquidity. Her Majesty's Government feel that in the present instance we should support the proposals agreed at Tokyo and that we should carry on discussions through the International Monetary Fund to see what further steps should be taken to increase world liquidity.

THE EARL OF DUNDEE

My Lords, do the Government recognise that this may be urgent?

LORD SHEPHERD

My Lords, it is certainly urgent, but it is a difficult matter and many other countries are involved. The Government feel that we should proceed slowly but with a degree of urgency, and perhaps in the present instance the less said in public the better.