§ Mr. Craven-Ellisasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give specific details of defects in the Commodity Standard which has operated in this country since 1933, and upon which the Sterling Group is based comprising many other countries, which are the reasons for changing over to the proposals recommended by the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference recently held at Bretton Woods.
§ Sir J. AndersonTo deal fully with this Question would require more time than is now available, but I may say that since 1933 the monetary policy of this country and all other parts of the British Commonwealth in the Sterling Area has been on the one hand to maintain sufficient flexibility in the rate of exchange between sterling and other currencies to avoid a deflationary restriction of credit for monetary reasons, and on the other hand to avoid unjustifiable and undesirable exchange fluctuations and to preserve stability so far as this is consistent with the avoidance of deflation. The International Monetary Plan, as I understand it, seeks to extend very much the same principle over a wider area. It will be seen, therefore, that my hon. Friend's Question rests on a fundamental misapprehension. What is true is that the Plan recognises gold as a standard of value as must be the case in any plan concerned with the regulation of relations between gold-based currencies such as the dollar, and managed currencies such as our own, but that fact does not in any way justify the assertion that acceptance of the Plan would involve a return in this country to the Gold Standard. I endeavoured to make this point clear with respect to the Plan in its earlier form in the Debate on the 10th May last, and I am satisfied that there is no change in this respect in the Plan as it emerged from the Bretton Woods discussion.
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§ Mr. Craven-Ellisasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give consideration to holding an inquiry into the various alternative plans to the Bretton Woods proposals as a basis of international trade before any decision is taken.
§ Sir J. AndersonNo, Sir. The Bretton Woods proposals are to be debated by the House, and I think that the matter should be dealt with in this way rather than by holding an inquiry of the kind suggested in the Question.