The
Enemy Within the EmpireA
SHORT HISTORY OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND By ERIC D. BUTLER. INTRODUCTION Most
orthodox history that is crammed into the heads of our children is one long list
of contradictions. There is no real background to our social development because
the main underlying factors have been completely ignored. The part played
by the money system in the growth of society has been tremendous; yet how
many of our historians mention it? We teach our children about the development
of the British Commonwealth of Nations, although the real basis of this growth
has been either neglected of distorted, while the development of that powerful,
private and anti-social institution, the Bank of England, is very rarely mentioned.
If we are really desirous of preserving and
developing British culture, it is essential that we attempt to gain at. least
an elementary knowledge of the attack which was launched against the British people
at the time of Cromwell. It is significant
that the introduction of what has been termed a "spurious Whig culture," marked
the origin of the present banking racket in Britain. This cultural and financial
attack has been going ever since, although there is sound reason to believe that
the enemy is at last being turned on both flanks However, as yet, there is no
sign of a rout in the enemy's ranks. Even the London "Times," one of the chief
mouthpieces of the financial oligarchy, offered the following criticism of "Whigism"
in its issue of August 4, 1840: "There is certainly in 'Whigism' an inherent
propensity to tyranny; and of all the methods which tyranny ever invented for
sucking out the essential vitality of free institutions, without appearing materially
to touch their forms, this centralising system is the most plausible and the most
pernicious. . . If it shall be fully carried out, British liberty ... will rest
no longer on the possession of constitutional power by the people, but upon the
sufferance of a majority of those who, for the time being, may call themselves
the people's representatives." The man
who wrote the above lines, 100 years ago, had a deep insight into the principles
of social organisation. Those who seek to re-write history find it a very formidable
undertaking, because it has become a "vested interest" with the official historians.
Any historian who refused to portray Cromwell as a saviour of the British people,
pointed out that his real name was Williams, and that he belonged to a small group
of men who had been enriching themselves at the expense of the Monarchy and the
people, while bringing a group of foreigners from Holland to batten on the British
people, would not find his books recommended for use in our schools or universities.
Our "Whig" historians tell us about the tyrannies of Charles I. and Charles II,
and how they reigned without Parliament. The impression is given that Parliament
in those days was similar to what we have to-day. Nothing is further from the
truth. It was comprised of. a group of wealthy men who were not very responsible
to the British people. The real fight was
between the Money Power and Monarchy, with the victory of the Money Power in 1688
when James II was driven off the throne by his son-in-law, William III., who was
brought to Britain at the behest of the financial interests. The Bank of England
was formed six years later - 1694 - and with it began the National Debt. The Bank
was formed for the purpose of lending money to the crown and was modeled on the
Bank of Amsterdam, founded in 1609, the first bank in Northern Europe. The part
played by Jews in this formation of the modern banking system, together with the
modern Stock Exchange, was considerable. THE
PRELUDE IN BRITAIN It is essential that
we make ourselves conversant with the growth of the forces which paved the way
for the establishment of the Bank of England and the debt-system. Anyone who cares
to study British history during the six and a half centuries from the Norman Conquest,
until the financiers arrived at the invitation of Cromwell, will find that the
Monarchy did exercise its sovereign right of issuing money. There was adequate
money for the people's needs. Modern history books fail to tell us of the general
standard of prosperity and culture which existed prior to the banking swindle.
It has remained for such writers as William Cobbett and Thorold Rogers to give
us a true picture of those times. Writers like Sir John Fortesque (about 1460)
give detailed evidence of the general prosperity of the English people. There
is no need for me to deal with the Trades Guilds and the great architecture of
which the British people still have much evidence - although aerial bombing has
wrought much destruction. With a population of three millions, there were ten
thousand students at Oxford University. In
Queen Elizabeth's reign Britain produced some of the finest minds the world has
ever seen. Both Bacon and Shakespeare have had a tremendous influence on Western
civilisation - particularly Bacon, to whom we chiefly owe the modern system of
experimental science based on inductive reasoning. In
1655, the Jewish influx under Cromwell started. Cromwell first called Councils
to consider the matter, but all were against it. Cromwell dismissed his counsellors
and allowed the Amsterdam Jews to enter Britain surreptitiously. The following
extracts from "The Jewish Encyclopedia" are most instructive on this matter:
"Toward the middle of the seventeenth century a considerable number of
Marrano merchants settled in London, and founded there a secret foundation at
the head of which was Antonio Fernandez Carjaval. They conducted a large business
with the Levant, East and West Indies, Canary Islands and Brazil, and, above all,
with the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal." "Outwardly, they seemed
as Spaniards and Catholics, but they held prayer-meetings at Cree Church Lane
. . . meanwhile, public opinion in England had become prepared by the Puritanical
movement for a sympathetic treatment of any proposal by the Judaizing sects among
the extremists of the Parliamentary Party for the readmission of the Jews into
England". This is a most interesting admission,
confirming what I have mentioned concerning the attack on British culture by the
Puritans, or Whigs. It was in 1650 that Manasseh ben Israel, the man through whom
the Jews had financed Cromwell, published his "Hope of Israel," in which
he said that the Messiah could not appear until the Jews had settled in every
country. He said that if England would only admit them the Messianic Age might
be expected. Further extracts from "The Jewish
Encyclopedia" will prove of interest: "Meanwhile the commercial policy
which led to the Navigation Act in October 1651, made Cromwell desirous of attracting
the rich Jews from Amsterdam to London so that they might transfer their important
interests from the Spanish Main from Holland to England . . . the mission of St.
John to Amsterdam, which had previously proposed as an alternative to the Navigation
Act a coalition between the English and Dutch commercial interests had negotiated
with Manasseh ben Israel. . . ." M. ben
Israel then left for London where he "printed his 'humble address' to Cromwell
. . . as a consequence, a National conference was summoned at Whitehall. Both
the divines and the merchants were opposed to the re-admission and Cromwell stopped
the discussion in order to prevent an adverse decision." "The
question came to a practical issue through the declaration of war against Spain,
which resulted in the arrest of Antonio Rodrigues Robles and forced the Marranos
of London to avow of their Judaism as a means of avoiding arrest as Spaniards,
and the confiscation of their goods. As a final result, Cromwell appears to have
given informal permission to the Jews on condition that they did not obtrude their
worship on public notice. Under cover of this permission Carjaval and S. de Carcerces
purchased a piece of land for a Jewish cemetery . . . and Solomon Dormido, a nephew
of M. ben Israel, was admitted to the Royal Exchange as duly licensed broker to
the City of London without taking the usual oath involving faith in Christianity." This
somewhat surreptitious method of solving the Jewish Question in England had the
advantage of not raising anti-Semitic feeling too strongly, and it likewise enabled
Charles II., on his return, to avoid taking any action on the petition of the
merchants of London asking him to revoke Cromwell's concession. Although several
determined attempts were made to have the Jews removed, they maintained rather
a precarious position until the arrival of William III., in 1688. He was surrounded
by Jewish bankers from Amsterdam. In an article
in "The Jewish Encyclopedia" on Holland, we read that the reign of William
III. marked a "period of exceptional prosperity for the Jews . . . the prince
employed Jews in his negotiations with foreign kings . . . and Isaac Lopez Suasso
(who lent 2,000,000 gulden to William for his descent upon England)."
The following extract is from Sir Archibald Alison's "History of Europe":-
"The Prince of Orange brought from the Republic of Holland, where it had been
already practised and thoroughly understood, the secret of governing popular assemblies
and extracting heavy taxes from popular communities. . . . His whole efforts were
directed to gain the majority of the constituencies by corruption, and of votes
in Parliament by patronage. . . . It was then that the National Debt began; and
government was taught the dangerous secret of providing for the necessities, and
maintaining the influence, of present times by borrowing money and laying its
payment on posterity." THE FORMATION
OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND The modern banking
system did not exist in Britain until Cromwell's regime. In his history of England,
Macaulay says that banking had not started at the time of the Restoration (1660).
Merchants had their strong-boxes and paid out honest coin on demand. A. E. Feaveryear,
in "The Pound Sterling" (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1931) fixes the origin
of English banking as 1662. Goldsmiths started to give receipts for money held.
These were passed about, and thus the cheque and banknote were born. The goldsmiths
began to find that they could make more loans than they had cash. Macaulay quotes
a pamphlet, published in 1695, as saying: "Indeed, no goldsmith had in
his vaults guineas and crowns to the full value of his paper". In
other words, the goldsmiths were swindling their customers by lending, or pretending
to lend, what they did not possess. William
was finding that his war against France was not very popular. Money was hard to
obtain. It was at that stage that William Paterson, a Scottish economist and financier,
hit upon the brilliant idea of forming a Bank, to be called the Bank of England,
for the purpose of lending the King money. Whatever the present supporters of
the banking swindle may say, the man who was primarily responsible for the Bank
of England frankly admitted what he was doing. In a plan for forming the bank
which he drew up at that time, he said: "The Bank hath benefit of interest
on all moneys which it creates out of nothing."
This Scot knew the real basis of banking, and, unlike his successors, did not
bother to conceal it. The merchants of London were very keen on the idea, although
the Government of the day was not very enthusiastic. In his "History of His
Own Times" (1693), Bishop Burnet wrote: "The fear of centralisation
of the money power was indeed the grounds upon which the Tories and Commons fought
so bitterly against the founding of the Bank of England, thinking that the bank
would grow to be a monopoly. All the money in England would come into their hands,
and they would, in a few years, become the masters of the stock and wealth of
the nation." Needless to say, the majority
of the Whigs favoured the establishment of the Bank. The first Governor was Sir
John Doublon, a Dutchman. The formation of the Bank in 1694 was incredibly camouflaged
in its authorisation by 'The Tonnage Act." As far as I am aware, there had been
no attempt to have the Charter of the Bank revoked until August 13, 1940, when
Mr. Stokes, Labour Member for Ipswich, asked the Prime Minister whether there
would be time made available to discuss a motion to that end standing in his name.
Mr. Attlee, replied, and said that no time for discussion was possible. Which
indicates quite clearly that there is very little hope of financial reform from
the British Labour Party. Mr. Stokes's resolution
read as follows: "That this House calls upon His Majesty's Government to revoke
the Charter of the Bank of England, whereby the right to issue money was passed
to private interest in the reign of William and Mary, and to repeal all Acts of
Parliament passed in support thereof since its granting, so as to take back for
the benefit " of the people the power which rightly belongs to them. . . .
The ownership of the Bank of England has always
been a matter of much speculation, although its close contact with International
Jewish finance is well known. In 1696 the law laid it down that stock in the Bank
might be held by "any and every persons, natives and foreigners, bodies politick
and corporate, who may so subscribe." Later legislation has required that
the Governor, Deputy-Governor, and Directors must be "natural-born or naturalised"
British subjects. In 1847 a British Parliamentary
Committee took evidence about the Bank of England. One witness, a Mr. Samuel Gurney,
was asked a question concerning the functioning of the Bank in the public interest.
The question was as follows: "Is it not a principle laid down by the Act of
1844, that in all its dealings with the public the Banking Department of the Bank
of England is to carry on its transactions with reference to its own interest
alone, arid not with any view to the public advantage?" Mr. Gurney, known
in his time as "the bankers' banker," replied: "That is one of the principles
to be followed under that Act." The following
interesting report in connection with the Bank of England appeared in the "Manchester
Guardian" on December 28, 1839, and was republished in that paper on January
6, 1940:- "A special general meeting of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and
Manufacturers was held at their offices, Town Hall Buildings, King Street, on
Thursday last, to receive a report from the board of directors on the effects
of the administration of the Bank of England upon the commercial and manufacturing
interests of the country. (The report of the meeting, which ran to five and a
half columns, contained the lengthy report of the directors on the Bank, the concluding
paragraphs of which were): "Although it
scarcely comes within the scope of their present object, the board will add a
reflection upon the subject of the undue privileges possessed by the Bank of England.
That such a power over the property, and, as has been seen, the health, morals,
and very lives of the community should be vested in the hands of 26 irresponsible
individuals for the exclusive benefit of a body of bank proprietors, must be regarded
as one of the most singular anomalies of the present day - that the secret of
these individuals, veiled as they are even from the eyes of their own constituents,
should decide the fortunes of our capitalists, and the fate of our artisans -
that upon the error or wisdom of their judgment should depend the happiness or
misery of millions - and that against the most capricious exercise of this power
there should be neither appeal nor remedy; that such a state of things should
be allowed to exist, must be regarded as a reproach to the intelligence of the
age, and as totally irreconcilable with every principle of public justice.
If instead of having been handed down to us from our ancestors, it had
been proposed in the present day to create a joint stock bank, to be endowed with
the powers and privileges enjoyed by the Bank of England, the common sense of
the country would have revolted against the attempt to establish so dangerous
a monopoly." At the famous Macmillan Commission
in 1929, the evidence of Sir Ernest Harvey, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England,
dealt with this same. point. He said: "The Bank of England is practically free
to do whatever it likes. . . . " In
the "Manchester Guardian" of May 23, 1940, the financial editor wrote: ". .
. It still remains to be seen whether the Treasury, with all the enabling powers
in the world, can make the views of the War Cabinet prevail over the views of
the Bank of England." As we trace its
influence on the affairs of the British people, and practically every country
throughout the British Commonwealth of Nations, we will see that this private
monopoly is the greatest internal enemy the British people have in their midst.
BANK ASSESSES ITS OWN INCOME TAX One
of the outstanding features of the Bank of England is the manner in which its
history and operations have been shrouded in secrecy. A very good orthodox history
was published in 1908, but revealed nothing. Research in regard to this institution
has not been simple. There are no publicly available files of the Bank of England.
Since it is not a limited company, but operates under Parliamentary charters,
it has no registered offices, and, therefore, no place where, by law, its accounts
may be examined. The following is a reply
to one enquiry: - "In reply to your recent letter I have to inform you as follows:
(1) The list of stockholders published by the Bank is for internal use, and
is available to proprietors of Bank Stock only. (2) The Bank has no Statutes
or Articles of Association; the constitution being based upon a Charter of 1694
and various Acts of Parliament, of which the chief is that of 1844. "I may
mention that a Statistical Summary, compiled by the Bank of England, has recently
been made available at an inclusive charge of 12/- per annum, payable in advance."
RONALD DALE, Secretary. One of the most remarkable
facts about the Bank is that it assesses its own profits for Income Tax. The following
extract is from the British "Hansard," dated June 13, 1940: "Mr. Stokes asked
the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that the Bank of England assesses
its own profits for Income Tax; and whether he will take such steps as may be
necessary to have them assessed by an independent authority? " Sir Kingsley
Wood: "I would refer the hon. Member to Section 68; the actual computation
of liability is subjected to examination and check by the officers of the Board
of Inland Revenue." Mr. Glenvil Hall: 'How
can they make an assessment if they do not issue a balance-sheet?" Sir
Kingsley Wood: "That is another matter."
It was by Section 24 of the Income Tax Act, 1842, that the Bank of England, a
private institution, was empowered to assess and tax itself with no other person
or body in control. The present authority for this is contained in the Consolidation
Act, the Income Tax Act, 1918, Section 68, from which I quote the opening paragraphs:
"For the purposes of assessing and charging Income Tax and in the cases mentioned
in this Section, the following persons shall be commissioners, and shall have
all the powers of the general commissioners for that purpose, and shall make assessments
under and subject to the provisions and rules of this Act, that is to say:
(1) The Governor and directors of the Bank of England and Bank of Ireland respectively,
in respect of interest, annuities, dividends and shares of annuities, and the
profits attached to same, payable to either bank out of the public revenue of
the United Kingdom; (2) The Governor and directors of the Bank of England
and of the Bank of Ireland respectively, in respect of: (a) Interest, annuities,
dividends and shares of annuities, entrusted to either bank for payment;
(b) Profits or gains of either bank chargeable under Schedule D; (c) All
other interest,, annuities and dividends, and salaries and pensions payable by
either bank; and (d) All other interest profits chargeable with tax arising
within any office or department under the management or control of either bank."
These important concessions not only indicate
that the Bank has something to hide; it is definite evidence that the Bank of
England has power over the British Government. THE
MACMILLAN ENQUIRY The Macmillan Committee
was appointed by a Labour Government in 1929 "to enquire into banking, finance,
and credit, paying regard to the factors, both internal and international, which
govern their operation, and to make recommendations calculated to enable their
agencies to promote the development of trade and commerce and the employment of
labour. " The list of members on this
committee is particularly interesting: The Rt. Hon. Lord Macmillan
(Chairman)-Lawyer. Mr. Ernest Bevin - Trade Union Official. The
Rt. Hon. Lord Bradbury - Treasury Official; President, British Bankers'
Association. The Hon. R. H. Brand - Managing Director, Lazard Bros.,
Merchant Bankers; Director, Lloyds Bank; Vice-President, International Financial
Conference, League of Nations, 1920; member of Expert Committee advising German
Government on stabilisation of the mark, 1922. Professor Theodor Emanuel
Guggenheim Gregory-Bankers orthodox economist. Mr. J. M. Keynes - Orthodox
economist; Treasury, 1915-1919; Principal Representative of Treasury, Paris
Peace Conference, 1919. Mr. Lennox B. Lee - Chairman, Calico Printers
Association; member of Advisory Council, Board of Trade; President, Federation
of British Industries, 1929. Mr. Cecil Lubbock - Director, Bank of
England. The Rt. Hon. Reginald McKenna - Chairman, Midland Bank since
1919; Chancellor of Exchequer, 1915-16. Mr. J. T. Walton Newbold -
Fabian Society 1908; Independent Labour Party 1910; Plebs League 1917; left I.L.P.
to join Communist Party 1921; member of the Executive, Labour Research Department
1922-26; member of the Executive of the Communist Party and Communist International
1921-23; resigned from Communist Party and International 1924; Labour Party candidate
(Epping), May, 1929. Sir Walter Raine - Coal Exporter; ex-President,
Association British Chambers of Commerce; ex-Chairman Coal Exporters Federation
of Great Britain. Mr. J. Frater Taylor - Associated with various industrial
undertakings in England, India, Canada, U.S.A.; Director, International Power
and Paper Co., Newfoundland; Director, Canadian and Foreign Investors, Ltd.
Mr. A. A. G. Tulloch. Sir Frederick Leith Ross - Entered Treasury
1909; British Representative on Finance Board Reparation Commission, 1920-25.
Mr. Paul Einzig, in his admiring biography
of Mr. Montagu Norman, wrote: "The efforts of the Macmillan Committee to throw
more light upon the machine of the Bank of England failed almost completely. .
. . Indeed, the evidence of Mr. Norman is a study in non-committal and evasive
answers." However, some significant facts
were brought to light. Mr. A. N. Field, the New Zealand author, writes as follows:
"The Bank of England is controlled by a Governor, a Deputy Governor, and
twenty-three directors elected by holders of £500 or more of Bank Stock. The Court
of Directors is not required by law to meet more than twice a year. Sir Ernest
Harvey explained that the Bank is really managed by what he called 'an Inner Cabinet,'
known as the Committee of the Treasury. This Inner Cabinet consists of the Governor,
Deputy Governor, and nine directors elected from among their number by the Court
of Directors. The rest of the directors stay outside." From
the questions asked of Sir Ernest Harvey, some members of the Macmillan Committee
were strongly under the impression that certain powerful firms had permanently
reserved seats on the Bank of England. Mr. J. M. Keynes, the economist, asked
whether 'the class of merchant bankers from whom the directors of the Bank are
largely drawn historically, by reason of ancient tradition, is suited to modern
conditions.' Sir Ernest Harvey replied that recent tendency 'has not been
to follow quite the old historical tradition.' He doubted whether it would
be possible to collect by any other method a body of men 'so absolutely unbiassed
and disinterested in judgment,' and 'if the names of the representatives of certain
firms do appear it is generally the result of seeking for somebody of the very
highest financial standing in the City of London,' etc., etc Mr.
J. T. Walton Newbold, another member of the Committee, chipped in with a remark
that: 'It is very strange how certain merchant bankers have members of their firms
appearing on the Court of Directors over a period of fifty years. As fast as one
goes off another comes on.' Sir Ernest Harvey replied that this was not true
in recent years except in one case. Mr. Newbold rejoined that there had been a
continuity in merchant bankers since 1889, adding, 'I checked it the other day.'
Sir Ernest Harvey said: 'No, pardon me, there has always been an interval,
except once.' Whether the 'interval' was in the nature of hours, days, months,
or years, was not disclosed, the matter being dropped at this point. The
'merchant bankers' referred to as sitting so continuously on the directorate of
the Bank of England and thus controlling the British Empire were later on described
to the Macmillan Committee by Sir Robert M. Kindersley, himself a director of
one of these firms, that of Lazard Brothers. They are also known as 'issuing houses'
for big loan flotations and as 'acceptance houses.' 'Practically
every acceptance house of long standing in this country,' said Sir Robert M. Kindersley,
'commenced purely as merchants trading with foreign countries, and a great many
of them, most of them, I think I may say, are of foreign origin. If you take the
names, Goschen, Hambro, Klienwort, and Lazard, and Brandt, you can go through
the whole list of them, and I think you will find a very large number, the majority,
are people of foreign origin. . . . It is only the origin . . . some people might
think they are still very largely, perhaps, under foreign influence, which, of
course, is not so.' In spite of Sir Robert
Kindersley's assurances, the fact remains that when the Great War broke out in
1914, the head of one prominent firm of merchant bankers, long represented on
the directorate of the Bank of England, was discovered to have omitted even the
easy formality of naturalisation. This was Baron Bruno von Shroeder, who, according
to statements by Lord Wittenham in the House of Lords on July 26, 1918, had to
be naturalised after war was declared in order to save the solvency of the City
of London. Having got so far in our glance
at the Bank of England, which governs our Empire in its monetary affairs, we have
next to note another pleasant little trait in its habits. It is answerable to
nobody, and never explains its actions. On Mr. Keynes asking Sir Ernest Harvey
if this was the case, the reply was, 'Well, I think it has been our practice to
leave our actions to explain our policy.' What about the reasons for the Bank's
policy? asked Mr. Keynes. 'It is a dangerous thing to start giving reasons,'
said Sir Ernest Harvey. HOW WAR DEBTS ARE
JUGGLED People who urge that the present
disastrous financial policy of needless debt and taxation should be abolished
in order to allow the British peoples to win this war FOR THEMSELVES, in the shortest
possible time, are sneered at by our financial "'experts," who tell us that "we
must pay the cost of the war." I agree. But the real cost of a war is the
sacrifice in men and materials. This cost is paid as the war is fought. Under
the present financial swindle the people are sacrificed in order to pay financial
tribute in the form of taxation for all time. To ask men and their families to
pay the interest bill for all time on the materials they used to defend themselves
is little short of treachery. Those who think that we should be sacrificed to
an insane financial policy at the end of the war might note that Britain, during
the last war, actually increased her assets by 25 per cent. This was done in spite
of the millions of men taken out of production and doing the fighting in France.
When these men had won the military conflict, they came back to civil life and
started producing further goods. In 1919 Britain
possessed the greatest industrial machine in the world. She was in the position
to give her people the highest standard of living the world has yet seen - in
fact, a land really fit for heroes to live in. But, as we have seen previously,
while the British people were standing up to the German military machine, the
financiers were plotting to obtain ever a greater control of the nation. No wonder
that William Jennings Bryan, the famous American statesman, once said: "The
money power preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in
times of adversity." We should always
remember the sinister Cunliffe Committee, and its recommendations to put Britain
back on the gold standard after the war. Dealing with these recommendations, Mr.
A. N. Field, the New Zealand writer, has stated: "The recommendation of the Cunliffe
Committee was 'for the maintenance of a complete and effective gold standard.'
In plain language, this simply meant that the enormous debt incurred in 8/- and
10/- pounds should be paid back in 20/- pounds. The nation was saddled with a
debt more than ten times that existing in pre-war days, in nominal value; but
in actual value, in consequence of. the depreciation in the purchasing power of
the pound, about five times the pre-war debt. This committee recommended that
the load on the back of the people should be doubled by a restoration of the pound
to the value it had possessed before the banks had lowered its value by lending
thousands of millions of imaginary money. To
realise the enormous fraud which was perpetrated by this juggling with money it
is sufficient to take one example. An important item in munitions manufacture
was copper. A good deal of this was purchased from the United States. In a publication
at hand it is stated that the average price for copper in the United States during
the ten years preceding the war was 16.2-3 cents per pound; the war price was
27 cents per pound. Commodities bought with 8/- and 10/- pounds at wartime prices
of this sort were lumped in the huge bill tied round the nation's neck, to be
paid off in 20/- pounds. In the words of Mr. Reginald McKenna, in his annual address
as chairman of the Midland Bank at this time, the whole proceeding was 'repugnant
to every principle of equity and economic propriety.' Dealing
with the recommendations of the Cunliffe Committee in a series of articles in
the London "Times" from May to October 1918, Mr. Arthur Kitson said: "
. . . The nation should be on its guard to see that the war debt is not enhanced
by some jugglery with our legal tender after the war. . . . The method is so insidious
and can be accomplished so easily that the public may be cheated before they are
aware of it. The war debt has been incurred in cheap pounds, and honest dealing
requires repayment in pounds and commodities of the same value as when the debt
was incurred. To raise the value of money after the war is an old trick of
the financiers. . . . At all costs a repetition of such jugglery should be prevented."
MONTAGU NORMAN TAKES CONTROL
In spite of the warnings of Kitson and others, the policy of deflation was introduced
in 1920 by the new Governor of the Bank of England, Mr. Montagu Norman. He introduced
Wall Street's deflation policy. Norman was a former partner in the banking
house of Brown, Shipley and Company, the London end of Brown Brothers and Company,
international bankers, New York. He was partly trained in America. He became Deputy
Governor of the Bank of England in 1915, and Governor in 1920. Immediately upon
his rise to the Governorship, Dr. Oliver Sprague, of the Federal Reserve Board,
which is dominated by the Wall Street group, Warburgs, etc., was sent over from
America to help him with his task. Within three years of Norman taking control,
Britain was reduced to chaos unemployment figures rose to approximately 2,000,000.
Men who fought to beat the German military gangsters were stabbed in the back
by the financial gangsters. Shipbuilding yards closed, never to open again. Slum
areas increased, while the defences of the nation were whittled away. There was
no money! Millions of British people have
lived in hell under the dictatorship of Norman and his Wall Street friends.
It is a magnificent tribute to the millions of people in Britain who have been
crucified by the financial system for so long, that their morale remained unbroken
under the Nazi blitzkriegs. In 1922 Mr.
Norman went to America with Stanley Baldwin to fix the American debt. The result
of this visit was to "fix" the British people more firmly under the heel of the
Wall Street group. Stanley Baldwin immediately afterwards had a meteoric rise
to the Prime Ministership of Great Britain, and played a traitor's role in introducing
Planning and Boards - part of the Bank of England's program of Socialism, as we
will see later - and acquiesced in the reduction of Britain to a second-rate Power.
When Mr. Montagu Norman returned from America with the Debt Settlement, Mr. Bonar
Law, Prime Minister of Britain at that time, is reported to have said: "If
I sign this I will be cursed for generations." Nothing more prophetic could
have been uttered. That Mr. Norman had the
"right" outlook for his job of controlling the British Empire will be seen from
the following significant extract from John Gunther's book, Inside Europe:
"Once, amiably chatting with a banker friend, he (Norman) listened imperviously
to the argument that the gold standard would impoverish Britain in the long run.
'Tell me,' Norman is reported to have said, 'do you think it better to be rich
than to be poor?' His friend replied: 'Well, I have been poor, and now I am fairly
rich, and I hope to be richer.' Norman replied that he was not sure but that countries
which were too rich went to pieces; he pointed to the examples of Periclean Athens
and Imperial Rome. His friend did not reveal the substance of the conversation;
the indication that the Governor of the Bank of England might consider it his
duty to impoverish his country for the country's 'benefit' would not have been
too popular." Just like Hitler and other
gangsters: "I know what is good for you." "I will have you thrown into a concentration
camp and have you beaten to death with a rubber truncheon," says Hitler .
Norman and his associates are more subtle. The British people are much harder
to deal with than the Germans. "I will have you living on the dole in slum areas.
It is good for you," says Norman. Civilisation
will never be safe until the Hitlers and Normans are removed from control. SOME
INTERESTING QUOTATIONS Apart from the
actual history of what took place after the last war, the following quotations,
which I have selected from a variety of sources, leave no doubt that even many
orthodox people realised that the control of the financial policy of Britain had
been transferred to Wall Street: "The City, the financiers and the moneylenders
in New York. and Paris, refused to put up credits in support of a balanced budget."
'They wanted humanity crucified on a cross of gold. We declined absolutely, and
resigned. . . . Twenty men and one woman - a British Cabinet - waited one black
Sunday afternoon in a Downing Street garden for a financial decision from the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York." -Thomas Johnston, M.P., Civil Defence Commissioner
for Scotland, and Lord Privy Seal in the Ramsay Macdonald Labour Government.
"Many nations may laugh at our State Department, but all
must tremble before our Federal Reserve Board. . . . High money rates in the United
States of America early in 1929, for instance, forced an increase in the official
bank rates at once in England, ten European countries, in two Latin-American countries,
and two in the Far East; and in almost every case that action restricted business
and brought suffering to millions of foreign workers. That blow hit Britain hardest
of all." -Mr. Ludwell Denny, well-known American banking authority, in his book,
America Conquers Britain, published in 1930. "Never
in the history of the world has so much power been vested in a small body of men
as in the Federal Reserve Board. These men have the welfare of the world in their
hands, and they could upset the rest of us either deliberately or by some unconscious
action." Sir Josiah Stamp, Director of Bank of England, reported in the National
Bank Monthly, February, 1926. The memoirs
of the late Lord Snowden, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Ramsay Macdonald
Labour Cabinet, reveal the fact that during the 1929-32 depression Wall Street
demanded a reduction in the British unemployment dole. Lord Snowden said: "On
Saturday, the 22nd August, the situation was hectic. The Bank of England submitted
to Mr. Harrison, the president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, the tentative
suggestion for a reduction of unemployment payments, . . . Mr. Harrison replied
by telephone that, while he was not in a position to give the answer until he
had consulted his financial associates, his opinion was that it would give satisfactory
assurance." "The interdependence of the
money policies of the U.S. and Great Britain, or - not to put too fine a point
upon it - the dependence of the latter upon the former, has been dramatically
demonstrated. We are informed that the bank-rate must certainly be raised from
4 to 5 per cent. next Thursday. There is nothing in the present position of British
Industry which would in itself call for an increase in the rate. . . . The incident
seems to show clearly who it is that cracks the whip and who obeys the signal."
Sir Josiah Stamp, in a letter to the Times, London, February 3, 1923.
"Nor is the growing importance of American finance in international
trade an assuring event. One of the things that can be assumed as a certain consequence
of the war is that finance is to hold a more important grip on international industry
than hitherto, and that in their own interests communities must protect themselves
so far as possible against an imperious international financial trust. In any
event, it is quite clear that this country will have to watch not only Lombard
Street, but Lombard Street and Wall Street. . . . For finance can command the
sluices of every stream that runs to turn the wheels of industry, and can put
fetters upon the feet of every Government that is in existence. Those who control
finance can paralyse the nation, can make it drunk, can keep it normal. And in
all their transactions their own interests are put first. Of course, these interests
are 'involved in the general interest. They cannot flourish in a dead economic
state. But they fix exchanges, bank rates, capital values; they can tighten or
loosen the purse strings of Governments and manufacturers; they control the means
upon which the political and industrial State depends for its existence." Mr.
Ramsay Macdonald, in Socialism, Critical and Constructive. "The
Prime Minister, at his interview with the junior Ministers on Monday, said the
proposals which the Government submitted to the Bank of England had to be telephoned
to America to see if they could be approved of there." Mr. Ernest Thurtle,
Labour Government Whip, in the "Daily Herald," August 27, 1931.
Speaking in the British House of Commons on September 10, 1931, Mr. W. Graham
explained how the British Government was forced to reduce the dole rates at the
instigation of Wall Street: " . . It was specifically put to us (the late Ministers)
that. unless one item in particular - a 10 per cent. cut in unemployment benefit,
to yield £12,250,000 - was included in the program, it would not restore confidence,
and we were told that no other item could be put in substitution. . . . Let the
House be under no misapprehension. It was because of an outside insistence upon
that specific point that the late Government broke." "To
propitiate Wall Street, British industry is to be taxed another 1 per cent. From
the list of directors of the Bank of England we publish (under the heading of
'Our Masters: Who's Who at the Bank: Who are the Financial Dictators of Great
Britain?'), it will be seen how few of them are engaged in the daily uphill task
of making goods and finding markets. Their eyes and minds are more on the ends
of the earth than on the troubles and needs of their immediate fellow-citizens.
The voice of Wall-street is heard and obeyed in their councils. . . . The Governor
of the Bank has followed his customary line by leaving industry to shift for itself,
while he moves his pieces on the board as though credit, and all that depends
on it, were merely favours in a game of international chess. We have to face the
fact that the power of the world today is in the hands, not of kings or governments,
nor of armies or navies, but of financiers." Sunday Dispatch, August 16,
1931. On the previous day the Dean of Winchester
had written in the Times: "The recent experience of Australia shows us
that the banking community is at long last a very effective Second Chamber."
When we study the control of Australian Governments by the local representatives
of the Bank of England we must agree that the Dean of Winchester was right. On
September 25, 1929, following a rise in the London bank rate, the editor of the
Daily Express said, in an open letter to the Governor of the Bank: "Among
your colleagues are several who are closely identified with large foreign interests,
and who may be tempted to consider questions of current policy from the standpoint
of international finance. But the Bank of England is, or should be, a British
institution serving British interests." The
questions which every Britisher, loyal to the principles upon which the British
Commonwealth of Nations has been built and the sovereignty of the Monarchy - particularly
in the issue of the nation's money supply - should ask: "Are the British peoples
still controlled by a financial policy dictated by a group of aliens? Can we hope
to preserve British institutions and British culture under such domination?" THE
FINANCING OF NAZI GERMANY In the British
House of Commons on April 16, 1940, Mr. Stokes asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer
whether he would introduce legislation to alter the charter of the Bank of England,
so as to enable the names of the bank proprietors, together with the capital holding
of each of such proprietors, to be published. Sir John Simon: "No, Sir."
Mr. Stokes: "In view of the disastrous policy followed by the Bank after the last
war and the part it is believed to have played in the re-armament of Germany,
does the right hon. gentleman not consider it time that the people knew a bit
more about the proprietors of this unique concern?" The
following humorous item, which appeared in the News-Chronicle on May 10,
1940, is very pointed: "Germany is an ungrateful beast, and I don't care who hears
me say it," declared Miss Ruby Fossicks, the Bank of England May Queen for
1940, at Brighton yesterday, opening the £500,000 Golden Calf Rest Home for Tired
Usurers. A wane smile from a Mr. Skinner and frantic applause from 5000 City usurers,
each with features more brutally degraded than the last, rewarded this stinging
attack. 'Heil der interest on der Unprodugtif Loan!' cried Sir Henry Glockenspiel,
a leading British financier. A resolution never to arm the Prussian Spirit with
money ever again till the present war is over was carried unanimously." Le
Canard Enchaine for August, 1939, published the following interesting item:
"In 1933 there appeared in Holland a book, written by a certain Sidney Warburg,
which quickly disappeared from booksellers' windows. In it the author stated that
in the preceding year, 1932, he had attended meetings in the United States of
financial gentlemen who were seeking means of subsidising Hitler. It appears that
among those present were Sir Henri Deterding, representatives of Morgan's Bank,
Mr. Montagu Norman (Governor of the Bank of England), and representatives of the
Mendelssohn Bank." Mr. Montagu Norman was
openly in favour of supporting the new Hitler movement by 1931. By
1935 the Bank of England was openly pro-Nazi, as revealed even in the Financial
News of May 15 of that year. In 1937, the "Banker" said that "we regret to
have to admit that from a small but influential circle in the City of London there
flows a constant stream of propaganda in favour of credits for Germany."
The following report appeared in the Sydney Sun on April 3, 1941:
"A sharp attack on Mr. Montagu Norman is made by the foreign editor of the conservative
'Financial News,' urging a public enquiry into the governship of the Bank
of England. 'We ought to probe more deeply into Mr. Norman's apparently unending
reign as Governor,' he writes. 'Any criticism of this reign from financial quarters
is still regarded as something akin to sacrilege, but we ought to ask ourselves
whether it is to Britain's advantage that Mr. Norman remains Governor at such
a critical period. . . Mr. Norman was largely responsible for our ill-advised
return to the gold standard in 1925. He strongly opposed the Treasury's "cheap
money" policy, which he reversed. Shortly before the outbreak of war he pursued
a policy of financial appeasement towards Germany. Until the outbreak he
allowed the City to over-lend to Germany. He did not exert his influence to obtain
a reduction in excessive German bank debts . . .' " As
anyone with even an elementary knowledge of the present financial system knows,
the Bank of England did not send millions of pounds to Germany. These millions
of pounds - created out of nothing by the Bank of England - were written up as
a credit to Germany in Britain. Germany could then buy goods in Britain to this
amount. A loan of £80,000,000 to Germany would mean that Germany could buy that
amount of materials in Britain. The terrible
fact emerges that the British people were working to re-arm their future enemies
because they did not control financial policy. The
same individuals who were building up Germany were keeping Britain weak by telling
the people that there was a shortage of money. Stanley Baldwin, one of the chief
puppets of the Bank of England, openly admitted on one occasion that he kept the
fact concerning German re-armament from the British people in order to win the
general elections. Mr. Paul Einzig says, in "World Finance, 1918-36," that "there
can be no doubt that practically the whole of the free exchange available to Germany
for purchase of raw materials was supplied, directly or indirectly, by Great Britain
in giving her enemy free exchange for the purpose of raw materials. If the day
of reckoning ever comes the liberal attitude of the British Government in this
matter may well be responsible for the lives of British soldiers and civilians."
These facts are widely recognised by responsible
authorities all over the world. Unfortunately, the people and their governments
have very little say concerning policy. The following is an extract from a report
of an interview which Mrs. Lillie Beirne, of Sydney, had with Mr. Mackenzie King,
Prime Minister of Canada, while she was lecturing in Canada. (Reported in the
New Era, February 14, 1941): "Mrs. Beirne: 'Why on earth, Mr. Prime
Minister, did you not keep these promises?' (She was referring to one of Mackenzie
King's statements in 1935, when he said that he would take control of the issue
of credit and currency on behalf of Canada.) 'The people would have immortalised
you.' Mackenzie King (rather sadly and in a slow tone): 'Well, we do the
best we can, Mrs. Beirne.' Mrs. Beirne: 'Well, it is a terrible position
we are in. English and American finance gave Hitler the money and metals and chemicals
to slaughter our men, women, and children, and destroy the British Empire - forgive
me, Mr. Prime Minister, for speaking so hotly!' Mackenzie King: 'I agree
with you. I never did agree with financing Hitler.'
The following extracts are from a sensational article which appeared in Ken
(Chicago, U.S.A.), November 3, 1938. The article was reprinted in many journals
throughout the world and caused a considerable stir:- "In the spring of 1934,
a select group of city financiers gathered around Montagu Norman in the windowless
building of the Bank of England, in Threadneedle Street. Among those present were
Sir Alan Anderson, partner in Anderson, Green & Co.; Lord (then Sir Josiah) Stamp,
chairman of the L.M.S. Railway System; Edward Shaw, chairman of the P.& 0. Steamship
Lines; Sir Robert Kindersley, a partner in Lazard Bros.; Charles Hambro, partner
in Hambros Bros.; and C. T. Tiarks, head of J. Shroeder Co. . . . But now
a new power was established on Europe's political horizon-namely, Nazi Germany.
Hitler had disappointed his critics. His regime was no temporary nightmare, but
a system with a good future, and Mr. Norman advised his directors to include Hitler
in their plans. There was no opposition, and it was decided that Hitler should
get covert help from London's financial section until Mr. Norman had succeeded
in putting sufficient pressure on the Government to make it abandon its pro-French
policy for a more promising pro-German orientation." Immediately
the directors went into action. Their first move was to sponsor Hitler's secret
re-armament, just about to begin. Using their controlling interests in both Vickers
and Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), they instructed these two huge armament
concerns to help the German program by all means at their disposal. . . . In the
same year English armament firms placed huge advertisements in the Militaerischer
Wochenblatt, offering for sale tanks and guns, prohibited by the Versailles
Treaty. A statement made by General Sir Herbert
Lawrence, chairman of Vickers, furnished the necessary evidence that the British
Government knew about and approved these advertisements. When, at his company's
annual meeting, he was asked to give the assurance that Vickers arms and munitions
were not being used for secret re-arming in Germany, he replied: 'I cannot give
you an assurance in definite terms, but I can tell you that nothing is done without
the complete sanction and approval of our Government.'
The excuse has been made that, although this financing of Nazi Germany did take
place, it was for the purpose of building a rampart against Russian Communism.
I quite appreciate this viewpoint, and believe that many sincere British interests
were made the victims of a carefully drawn-up program of propaganda. The fear
of Communism was deliberately played upon. Little did many people know that the
real controllers of the Bank of England - the Jewish oligarchy of Wall Street
- were also very interested in Russia. I believe that the opposition between Germany,
Russia, Japan and Italy was for the deliberate purpose of making the British people
acquiesce in a policy which was weakening the foundation of the Empire. The
following extract from an article by D. E. Faulkner-Jones, in The Fig Tree
(England), June, 1937, is almost prophetic, when we see the position today: "Secret
fear makes us seize eagerly on the comfortable assumption that the three militaristic
Powers (Russia, Germany and Japan) to be reckoned with are arming for internecine
conflict. Common sense would suggest a very different view; the view that it would
pay the three to unite, at least temporarily, for the dismemberment of the British
Empire. An appearance of mutual enmity between two of the three conspirators would
recommend itself as a simple and politic means of delaying British re-armament
as long as possible, and should, therefore, be discounted by prudent statesmen."
Russia's pacts with Germany and Japan - although
only of a temporary and expedient nature, as demonstrated by Hitler's attack on
Russia - confirm the above viewpoint. (Clashes between Hitler and Stalin must
not blind us to the fact that National Socialism and Marxist Socialism are only
different sects of the one "religion." An overwhelming victory for either sect
would be a further danger to the British way of life.) While
Britain's defences were being depleted - particularly her navy - the totalitarian
countries were being built up. Dictator Montagu Norman kept the British shipbuilding
yards closed. It is not without significance that the Governments of both Ramsay
Macdonald and Stanley Baldwin - dominated by Wall Street and the Bank of England
- played a big part in destroying Britain's naval power. By no stretch of imagination
could it be suggested that the British Navy was ever likely to be used in an aggressive
role. It was essential for the defensive purpose of keeping the trade routes of
the Empire open. Writing in the Fig Tree,
March, 1937, D. E. Faulkner-Jones said: "If America had insisted strongly and
openly on the repayment of our immense debt to her, there would have been no alternative
but to expose the real truth. The so-called 'investors' in America no more desired
this exposure than our own rulers; but they pressed their advantage home and made
Britannia give up her title of Mistress of the Seas. . . . If we are now unable
to protect our coasts, let alone our food routes, future historians may well find
a very potent cause in the financial control exercised by America (the writer
is referring to Wall Street) over us in the first years immediately after the
War, when our financial policy was watched over directly by an American adviser.
This control existed not because we owed America money; it existed because our
Government could not pay America the true debt we owed her - which was a debt
in goods, not money - without explaining to the public the secret of credit-creation.
It was quite easy to persuade the English to weaken fatally their first, and essentially
unaggressive, line of defence: their Navy. The instructed press ingeniously 'smote
the chord of self, which, trembling, passed in music out of sight.' There
was a shameless press exploitation of every generous emotion, every heart-throb
of repentance for the four years' butchery, which a healthy instinct made us feel
to be a common responsibility of all the participants, enemy and Allies alike.
During the high tide of this emotion, our Navy was quietly shorn of its strength."
In view of the seriousness of Britain's shipping position in this War, the following
extract from an editorial in Social Credit, of September 20, 1935, a typical
attack launched by loyal Britishers against the treacherous policy of the Bank
of England, is well worth quoting:. "By a strange twist of irony a Bank of England
concern which has probably done more in the last few years to undermine Britain's
security than all the Communists and all the machinations of foreign Powers put
together, is called National Shipbuilders' Security Ltd. A more suitable name
would be International Bankers' Security, for this concern is engaged in making
ship-owning safe for bankers who now control the 'British' mercantile marine.
It is 'rationalising' the shipbuilding industry by scrapping so-called redundant
yards. According to its annual report, this company has spent, in the last three
years, a total of £1,153,387 to buy shipbuilding yards for the deliberate purpose
of scrapping them. To replace this destruction would cost at least twenty times
as much. This is but one more instance of the sabotage of real wealth in the attempt
to make facts fit an archaic financial system. Those who remember the submarine
blockade of the last war, which resulted in the loss of millions of tons of ships
and thousands of human lives, and nearly resulted in starving this country into
surrender, should ponder the dangerous activities of National Shipbuilders' Security,
particularly at the present time. We trust that if, unfortunately, war comes again,
no plea of ignorance or 'sound' financial reasons will enable those responsible
for this sabotage to escape the penalty of traiters, should Britain suffer for
lack of these yards to build ships to replace those sunk." And yet we are
told that the Bank of England is today more powerful than ever! This
sabotage of Britain's shipbuilding industry was referred to in the British House
of Commons on January 21, 1941: "Mr. James Griffiths (Llanelly): . . . 'I
came into this House very largely because of the way industry was being neglected.
We are paying the price for the last 20 years in allowing our industrial equipment
to rust and to rot. For 20 years we lived in a period when coal mines, workshops
and shipbuilding yards were being closed down. By whom? By the financiers of this
country. . . . I cannot give way, as I have not much time, and I am entitled to
make my point. I want the nation to remember that for 20 years we have pursued
a policy of restricting and cutting down production, and now we are paying the
price for it. I will give one example. What would this nation give today for a
shipbuilding yard at Jarrow? Who closed down Jarrow? . . ." Jarrow was closed
by the Bank of England! Looking back over
past history it is almost beyond comprehension that the Bank of England. should
be allowed to continue its domination of the financial policy of an Empire fighting
for its very existence. All loyal Britishers will make every effort to make these
facts as widely known as possible in order that this internal financial cancer
can be removed and thus allow the British Empire to develop its tremendous potential
strength. Such a step would bring us real victory within a remarkably short time.
MR. NORMAN AND DR. SCHACHT Dr.
Hjalmar Schacht was the financial adviser in Germany; he was connected with the
interests responsible for the financing of Soviet Russia; was closely connected
with some of the "Left" movements in Germany prior to the rise of Hitler; helped
bring Hitler to power and, if International Finance accomplishes its objects,
will be still in a position of power long after Hitler has been swept from the
world stage. However, we are determined to sweep them all out. That is one of
our major objectives in this war. Dr. Schacht has been intimately connected with
Mr. Montagu Norman. In July, 1925, they both
were at a conference of international financiers in Nice. They were discussing
how "to save France" from financial collapse. In answer to a question by the Chairman
of the Macmillan Committee, Mr. Norman said, in outlining the proposals to form
a Central World Bank: "But, . . . there were at that time outstanding individuals,
as I believe, in the Central Banking World, who made co-operation possible in
the earlier stages, and pre-eminent among them were Governor Strong and President
Schacht. They were both dominant men, extremely interested from different sides
- and very differently they were - in co-operation. They were the most wholehearted
supporters of the idea and did, in its early stages, I believe, a great deal in
trying to bring about a common policy as between the various banks." In
May, 1934, a private conference took place between Dr. Schacht and Mr. Norman.
They met again at a "secret conclave" at Badenweiler, in the Black Forest, while
on their way to a meeting of the Bank of International Settlements at Basle. A
loan for Nazi Germany was being negotiated. A further meeting between the two
bankers took place in October of the same year. Towards the end of 1935 Mr. Norman
was again in secret discussion with Dr. Schacht. Already the Bank of England had
pledged itself to a financial scheme for stabilising the Nazi regime!
The Times Basle correspondent reported, April 5, 1936: "For the first
time since the existence of the Bank of International Settlements a board meeting
was held today in a country other than Switzerland. Dr. Schacht had invited all
the Governments to meet at Badenweiler, a German health resort in the Black Forest,
where Dr. Schacht has several times spent weekends with Sir (!) Montagu Norman."
After Munich, Dr. Schacht went over to
England and was a guest of Mr. Norman. In January, 1939, Governor Norman was on
his way to the monthly meeting of the B.I.S.; he called on Dr. Schacht in Berlin
on the way. War was declared in September, but, as questions in the British House
of Commons on September 17, 1940, revealed, the Bank of International Settlements
is carrying on, with representatives of the bankers from all the belligerents.
The following is taken from the British "Hansard": "Mr. Parker asked the Chancellor
of the Exchequer whether he is aware that, in the report of the Bank of International
Settlements, dated May 27, 1940, the names of Mr. Montagu Norman, Governor of
the Bank of England, and Dr. Funk, German Economic Minister, are included together
amongst the list of directors; and as it is not desirable at the present time
Mr. Norman should be listed in a public document as a colleague of a German Cabinet
Minister, he will take the necessary steps to terminate this country's connection
with the Bank of International Settlements?" Mr.
Craven-Ellis asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is satisfied that
the enemy gain no advantage from the Bank of England's association with this bank,
which is now controlled by representatives of enemy countries, he will take steps
to ensure that all connection with the Bank of International Settlements is revised?
. . . " Mr. Shinwell: 'Is it desirable to retain
this informal association between Mr. Montagu Norman and Dr. Funk, and if the
arrangement which was previously operative is now inoperative, could not this
association be brought to an end?" Sir K. Wood:
'No, sir, I do not think so, because, as I have said, I think there are advantages
to this country in retaining the connection. We have a little money there. . .
." Mr. Gallacher: 'Does the right hon.
gentleman remember the words of the Prime Minister, that the gold sent through
this bank by Montagu Norman to Germany would come back to this country in the
form of bombs; and in view of the correctness of that prophecy is it not about
time to put an end to this bank?" Sir
K. Wood: 'I have already said we have some interest there.' THE
FINANCING OF RUSSIA It is now common knowledge
in well-informed circles that certain German-American-Jewish financial interests
were directly associated with the financing of the Russian revolution and the
exploitation of that country. The same interests seek to foist International Socialism
on the entire world - particularly the British Empire. The same interests were
responsible, both directly and indirectly, for Hitlerism. Hitlerism and Communism
are almost synonymous terms - as the world was shocked to learn when the Russo-German
Pact took place just prior to the outbreak of the present war. The fact that Germany
has since attacked Russia does not alter the underlying fact that International
Finance is gaining more in power at the expense of the British peoples. We can
only judge who wins a war by asking "Who benefits?" In
1921, a certain Krassin - who had been a direct representative of the International
Financiers in Russia after the revolution - went to London as leader of the Soviet
Trade Delegation - the negotiations for which had been initiated by persons in
the City of London with powerful international financial groups behind them.
The "Morning Post" of December 16, 1921, claimed that this delegation was for
the purpose of arranging a project for the combined exploitation of Russia by
British and German financial interests. Mrs. N. Webster, reviewing these facts
in The Surrender of the Empire, says: "Viewed from this angle the Trade
Agreement with Great Britain and Russia in 1921 takes on a different aspect. No
longer a compact with a derelict empire, but with the most formidable Power in
the world, the Power of International Finance, it is seen not as an act of folly,
but as a surrender to forces with which its authors were either unable or unwilling
to contend." The forces behind Russia are
forces which have consistently sought to destroy the British Empire; far too many
of our Empire's "leaders" have been prepared to betray us to these alien forces.
In his book, The Alien Menace, the late Colonel A. H. Lane, one of the
most patriotic Britishers who has ever written on this matter, said: "Our financial
crisis in July, 1931, was largely due to the international financiers in the City
of London having granted large credits to Germany, which Germany declared herself
unable to repay. The newspapers described these loans or credits as being 'frozen'
in Germany. Germany had passed on these loans, or a good portion of them, to Russia,
and it was in Russia where they were - or are still - 'frozen.' The financial
collapse of Germany, or even of Great Britain, would not necessarily mean any
loss to the international financiers who 'wangled' our money into Soviet Russia.
. . . The following extracts from recent statements
on this question of 'frozen' credits not only prove that the relations between
International Finance and Bolshevism continue, but they suggest that these relations
may have serious consequences for this country. "On
18th September, 1931, Mr. James W. Gerard, American Ambassador in Berlin during
the War, after returning from a visit to Europe, declared that Germany 'did not
need any financial assistance and that a large percentage of the loans from the
United States was lent to Russia.' He added: 'If we're going to do business with
Russia, let us do it directly and not through Germany, which has arranged to give
Soviet Russia millions of dollars' credit to purchase commodities in Germany'
('National Review,' January, 1932). . . . This
story of Germany passing loans received from England and America to Russia has
been told many times in the Socialist journal, 'Forward'; and the story
is now confirmed by a paper closely associated with Soviet interests. The
'British-Russian Gazette and Trade Outlook,' December, 1931, said, in an
editorial article: 'It must be ironic for them (British manufacturers) to view
the forced cessation of work on the giant Cunard liner, which is attributed to
this country's 'frozen' credits in Germinany - credits which have been used in
great part by Germany to finance orders from Russia. During 1931, orders amounting
to over £45,000,000) have been placed with German firms by the Soviet buying organisations. Further
information on these credits was given by Lord Beaverbrook in an address at Lincoln,
reported in the 'Daily Express,' 16th January, 1932. Speaking on German
Reparations, Lord Beaverbrook said: 'It is true that Germany owes our international
financiers in the City of London £500,000,000. . . . Our international financiers
in the City borrowed that money from France and America and paid 2 per cent. for
the accommodation. They lent it to Germany for 8 per cent; and what did Germany
do with the money? She lent it to Russia for 15 per cent, interest. That is what
became of the money' Lord Beaverbrook added
that 'these buck-jumping financiers . . . have ramifications all over Europe.
We need not worry ourselves about them.' While
Lord Beaverbrook was right concerning the ramifications of the international financiers,
he was wrong when he said that we have no need to worry about them The Bank of
England is a vital factor in the plans of the international financiers. As we
will see later, the Bank of England has been deliberately introducing a form of
Socialism into Britain under the term, "Planned Economy." This is similar to the
Russian idea. It is being fostered by banking interests in all parts of the Empire.
THE ANGLO-GERMAN FELLOWSHIP We
have' dealt with the close connection between the Bank of England and the financing
of Nazi Germany. Most people have heard of the Anglo-German Fellowship Association
which existed before the outbreak of war. I have no doubt that many people who
belonged to this organisation were sincere in their outlook. Whether we can believe
the same of other members who belonged to the financial world is another matter.
In the membership of the Anglo-German Fellowship were three directors of the Bank
of England, three directors of the Midland Bank, Sir Walter Runciman (director
of Lloyds Bank), a director of Barclay's Bank, two directors of the National Bank
of Scotland, including the late Lord Lothian, three directors of Schroder and
Company (Anglo-German Bank), two directors of the British Linen Bank, two directors
of Ratti Brothers (Anglo-Italian Bank), Sir Sydney Peel (director of the National
Bank of Scotland), and Lord Hutchinson of Montrose (director of the London board
of the National Bank of Australia) . THE
ADMISSIONS OF 1924 The year 1924 will
always be remembered by students of economic history as the year in which Reginald
McKenna "blew the gaff" on the banking system in his now-famous admission to the
shareholders of the Midland Bank, in January, 1924; "I am afraid the ordinary
citizen will not like to be told that the banks can, and do create money. The
amount of money in existence varies only with the action of the banks in increasing
and decreasing deposits and bank purchases. Every loan, overdraft or bank purchase
creates a deposit, and every repayment of a loan, overdraft, or bank sale destroys
a deposit. AND THEY WHO CONTROL THE CREDIT OF A NATION, DIRECT THE POLICY OF GOVERNMENTS,
AND HOLD IN THE HOLLOW OF THEIR HANDS THE DESTINY OF THE PEOPLE."
Such an admission must have shocked Mr. Norman. But there was even worse to come.
Sir Drummond Fraser, vice-president of the Institute of Bankers, said: 'The Governor
of the Bank of England must be the autocrat who dictates the terms upon which
alone the Government can obtain borrowed money." THE
DESPOT OF THREADNEEDLE STREET Writing
in the New Leader of October 9, 1931, Lieut. Commander Kenworthy (now Lord
Strabolgi) said: "On one memorable occasion the present Governor of the Bank
was asked the relationship of the Court of Directors to the Treasury. He replied
that it was the relationship of Tweedledum and Tweedledee." No wonder, then,
that one authority dubbed Mr. Norman the "Despot of Threadneedle Street." The
following extracts, from various sources, are most striking evidence of the power
of Mr. Norman's dictatorship: "Mr. Montagu Collet Norman, the Governor of the
Bank of England, is now head and shoulders above all other British bankers. No
other British banker has ever been as independent and supreme in the world of
British finance as Mr. Norman is today. He has just been elected Governor for
the eighth year in succession. Before the war, no Governor was allowed to hold
office for more than two years; but Mr. Norman has broken all precedents. He runs
his bank and the Treasury as well." Wall Street Journal, 1927. Well,
Wall Street should know. The Wall Street Journal, of March 11, 1927, had
quite a lot to say concerning Mr. Norman: "Montagu Collet Norman, as Governor
of the Bank of England, has wide powers in determining the course of British credit.
. . . He, more than any other banker, has inspired the policy of banks of issue
in a dozen countries. His personal influence is such that he has variously been
called 'a Crusader' and 'the Currency Dictator of Europe.' . . . When Britain
returned to the gold standard, many Continental banks shifted gold balances to
the Bank of England. Mr. Norman insisted that Poland, Greece, and other countries
maintain gold deposits at the Bank of England, in order to get credit accommodation.
He berated the Governor of the Austrian Bank a couple of years ago for Austria's
failing to make administrative economies." "Since 1919 the monetary policy
of the Government has been the policy of the Bank of England, and the policy of
the Bank of England has been the policy of Mr. Montagu Norman" Mr. Vincent Vickers,
Bank of England director, 1910-19. "Now, let
us turn to those we can congratulate. The Court and directors of the Bank of England
have agreed to recommend to the proprietors in April next that the Right Hon.
Montagu Collet Norman be re-elected Governor. Mr. Norman will then have held that
post for a decade, and he can look back on the period of his office and say, without
fear of contradiction, that during his term of governorship America has experienced
ten years of unexampled prosperity." Viscount Castlerosse, 1928.
"I can say, with regard to a certain public appointment,
Mr. Montagu Norman, Governor of the Bank of England. not only objected to a decision
reached by a responsible Government Department and its Ministers, but insisted
on the appointment of another person, and also further advised the salary he was
to receive. In this case, the views of Ministers were overruled, and Mr. Norman's
advice accepted. The salary granted was also twice as high as that originally
proposed." Mr. E. Shinwell, ex-Minister of Mines, September 13, 1931. On
May 13, 1925, Mr. Norman forced Britain back on to the gold standard. The poverty-is-good-for-you
theory was being rigidly enforced. The worship of a yellow metal was more important
than human values. Sir Charles Morgan-Webb,
in "Ten Years of Currency Revolution," writes: "The operations of currency management
conferred upon the Bank of England the power to restrict credit, to postpone new
enterprises, to lessen the demand for constructional materials and other capital
goods, to create unemployment, to diminish the demand for consumable goods, to
cause difficulty in renewing loans, to confront manufacturers with the prospect
of falling prices, to force dealers to press their goods on a weak market, and
to cause a decline in general prices on the home market."
Following the appointment of Lord Catto, Cohn Campbell and Sir B. Hornsby - all
bankers - to the British Treasury in 1940 the following appeared in the London
Evening Standard of July 3: "The Bank of England is now taking over Whitehall.
That is the true meaning of appointments to the Treasury in the past few days.
The Bank of England today is probably more powerful than it has been for years."
It might be appropriate here if I deal briefly
with the famous incident in the British Navy on September 15, 1931. Montagu
Norman and his friends in Wall Street were calling upon the British people to
make even more sacrifices. This was too much for the Navy at Invergordon, and,
as a result of certain drastic action, Macdonald, Baldwin and Norman had to "ease
it off" a bit, so far as the Navy was concerned. The Daily Express of October
24, 1931, came out with a picture of the ex-Kaiser on the left-hand side and Montagu
Norman on the right. This was part of Admiral Dewar's election propaganda in North
Portsmouth. As a background to these two figures was a picture of the sea, with
battleships and other symbols of naval power. The title read as follows: "Leaders
of Lost Causes"; "The British Navy at Jutland in 1916 beat the ex-Kaiser; and
at Invergordon in 1931 it beat Mr. Montagu Norman." However, Mr. Norman's system
of borrow, boom and slump went on. THE
CZECHOSLOVAKIAN GOLD EPISODE What is now
known as the famous "Czech Gold Incident" further demonstrated the power of the
Bank of England and the Bank of International Settlements. It also demonstrated
the fact that the British Government had no control over the actions of the Bank
of England. When the Nazi machine crashed into Czechoslovakia in September 1938,
it took the assets of the Czechoslovakian National Bank. Approximately £5,000,000
worth of Czech gold held by the Bank of England was transferred to Germany, with
the result that, when this fact became known, there was an uproar in the British
House of Commons. The following extracts from the Sydney Morning Herald
of May 24, 1939, speak for themselves: "The Secretary for Mines, Mr. Crookshank,
said in the House of Commons that the Government had no power to restrain the
movement of gold held in the Bank of International Settlements on behalf of the
Czechoslovakian National Bank. . . . This means that more than £5,000,000 worth
of Czech gold deposited in the Bank of England for the Bank of International Settlements
will be transferred to Germany. . . . The City Editor of the 'News-Chronicle'
says: '. . . It now turns out that more than £5,000,000 was, in fact, released,
although not by agreement with the Treasury, BECAUSE THIS WAS NOT REQUIRED." (My
emphasis.) Three days after this report, the
following appeared in the Sydney Sun: "The charge that Germany had 'stolen'
£ 6,000,000 of Czech gold held in England was made in the Commons today. The gold,
it was stated, was claimed by the Bank for International Settlements, acting on
behalf of the German Reichsbank, from the Bank of England. "Mr. B. Bracken (Cons.),
who raised the subject, declared that the British delegates on the Bank for International
Settlements should have informed the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the claim.
He said that gangsters had got into Czechoslovakia and stolen the title deeds.
. . . Mr. Lloyd George (Lib.) asserted that the £6,000,000 had already been transferred
to the Reichsbank, which had no more right to it than a burglar. It was amazing,
he said, that the Treasury could have agreed to the decision without consulting
the Government." No doubt Germany utilised this gold to further increase
her supplies of raw materials for war purposes from British and other countries.
A BLOW AT THE MONARCHY
I pointed out earlier, in this "History of the Bank of England," how the
Money Power has been endeavouring to undermine the British Monarchy since the
time of Cromwell. I have also mentioned the conditions prior to the start of the
debt system, when the issue of the nation's money supply was one of the Monarchy's
greatest prerogatives. Here is an interesting table of comparison of conditions
in England: Thirteenth Century
Debt. Nil. Meat: ½d. per lb Fat Goose: 2d Beer: 1d gallon Shoes:
4d. pair Holidays: 152 a year Week's Work: Four days Productive Power:
Man and horse Man's Achievement: Cathedrals, Guildhalls, Art, Literature.
Twentieth Century Debt: Debt: £8,000,000,000.(This
is considerably more now.) Meat: 2/- per lb Fat Goose: 8/6 Beer:
5/4 gallon Shoes: 12/6 pair. Holidays: 56 a year. Week's Work: 6
days Productive Power: Steam, Electricity, Petrol. (About a million times
greater than the 13th century.) Man's Achievement: Slums, Crowded Hospitals,
Distressed Areas, Public Assistance Committees.
Until 1928 in Britain, the pretence of the King's sovereignty over the nation's
money was maintained by keeping his head upon all Treasury notes. But, as we know,
this is only a small portion of the total money supply. The great bulk of it is
manufactured in the form of bank credit by the private trading banks. However,
the private financiers wanted every suggestion of the Monarchy's sovereignty in
money matters removed. In 1928 an Act was
passed which transferred the King's currency to the Bank of England. In the design
of the new Bank of England notes the King's head disappeared! The people's paper
money ceased to have any authority under the Crown, and was now issued to them,
very kindly, by the private joint stock concern called 'The Governor and Company
of the Bank of England.' " In an article on
this matter, the Daily Mail said: "The new green £1 and brown 10/- notes
have a curiously foreign aspect. They look as if they had been designed in the
United States. . . . The old Treasury notes were not particularly artistic productions,
but they did not produce this impression of foreign provenance. The King's head
and the design of St. George killing the dragon stood out plainly on the front,
and Houses of Parliament equally plainly on the back. . . ."
The following pointed criticism was offered by the Morning Post: "The first
impression on the mind is that the design-perhaps in token of our debt to America
- has been modelled on that of the Greenback, and that if the denomination had
been expressed in dollars instead of in sterling, the effect would have been more
complete." Whether there was any connection
between what was little short of a personal attack upon King George V, and his
breakdown has caused some speculation. King George V, was very pointed in his
remarks when opening the World Economic Conference in 1933: "I appeal to you
to co-operate for the ultimate good of the whole world. It cannot be beyond the
power of man so to use the vast resources of the world as to assure the material
progress of civilisation. No diminution of these resources has taken place."
He went on to say that it was surely not beyond the capacity of man to distribute
the benefits of science. He clearly indicated that it was a problem of distribution,
which means that it is a money problem. He also said: "All nations are suffering
from a common ill. This is shown only too clearly by the use of unemployment figures.
Interpreting these figures in terms of human suffering has been my constant concern
in recent years." What a human appeal! What a reproach to those responsible
for the mal-administration of the Empire! King George V died very saddened in
spirit, but he left a fitting epitaph in the words I have quoted. Speaking
before the National Congress of the London Chamber of Commerce on Commercial Education
in 1933, his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales - now Duke of Windsor - said:
"The depression and economic disturbance has been largely caused by maladjustment
of distribution. The potential output is far greater than ever before. If all
employable labour were employed for a reasonable number of hours per week, the
world would have at its disposal a volume of commodities and services which would
enable the entire population to hive on a higher level of comfort and well-being
than has ever been contemplated in the rosiest dreams of the social reformer.
Our urgent task is to bring consumption and production into a proper relationship
- not a simple, but a quite possible, task." Distribution
depends upon the money system, which is largely controlled by the Bank of England.
Other members of the present Royal family have shown a similar concern for the
well-being of their people. Perhaps this evoked the famous slogan in some of the
slum areas a few years back: "We may be lousy, but we're loyal." If the British
experiment - as it has been so aptly called - is to be preserved and continued,
the creation of the nation's money supply will have to be wrested from the hands
of the private financiers and become the sole prerogative of His Majesty's Governments.
God save the King! MONTAGU NORMAN'S FOREIGN
POLICY Mr. Montagu Norman told the Macmillan
Committee that he had been devoting a great deal of his time after the war to
two things: The first was "the stabilisation of foreign countries which had
lost what they possessed before the war," and the second was the setting up of
central banks throughout the world. In
1922 a Conference of International Financiers took place in Genoa. Mr. Montagu
Norman was the leading exponent of the Central Reserve Bank System. In "Montagu
Norman, a Study in Financial Statesmanship," Mr. Paul Einzig, editor of the
London "Financial Review," says that Mr. Norman "raised central banking
after its early haphazard growth to a scientific system." He was "assisted by
able and experienced experts such as Sir Otto Niemeyer (Australians and New Zealanders
remember this gentleman quite well) and Mr. Siepmann." Mr. Einzig also says:
"Another condition on which Mr. Norman and his collaborators insisted was that
the central banks should be independent of their governments." This policy
has certainly been well carried out. Since the Commonwealth Bank in this country
has become a Central Bank it has been dominated by the private trading banks and
the Bank of England. " Political interference is rigidly opposed.
In his biography of Mr. Norman, Mr. Eimzig says: "His conception of a Central
Bank is that it should be a State within a State. This implies immunity from political
interference on the part of the political authorities of their respective countries,
and also the observance of rules adopted in the intercourse between sovereign
powers. . . . The most important step in the course of the endeavours to promote
co-operation between central banks has been the establishment of the Bank of International
Settlements. . . . As usual, he remained entirely behind the scenes. . . . In
spite of this he had more to do with it than anybody else."
Mr. Einzig also says: "It is a fact that in chronological order he devoted his
attention in the first place to the reconstruction of the ex-enemy countries."
We are told that this was "only because they were in urgent need of help." (The
crushing of the British people by Mr. Norman was apparently a matter of very little
importance. Mr. Poverty-is-good-for-you-Norman knew what was best!) The first
countries to be "assisted" by the Bank of England were Germany, Austria, Bulgaria
and the City of Danzig. The activities of
the Bank of England in connection with Austria, as related by Mr. Bruce Lockhart
in "Retreat from Glory," published in 1934, are well worth quoting. From
1919 to 1922 Mr. Lockhart was Commercial Secretary at the British Legation at
Prague. He says: "Before the war there had been a large bank called the Anglo-Oesterreichsche
Bank in Vienna - a Jewish concern with some English capital, and with branches
all over Old Austria." This bank fell into difficulties and the Bank of England,
to which it owed money, decided to put it on its feet again. Mr. Spencer Smith
was representing the Bank of England and, upon arriving at Vienna, had some difficulty,
in which he needed the diplomatic services of Mr. Lockhart. Mr. Lockhart relates:
"All the assets of the Viennese Bank were in Austrian Treasury notes, which had
been deposited in Prague. While the Austrians claimed that the notes were entitled
to be valued in Czech currency, the Czechs were equally insistent that they were
not." Czechoslovakia had formerly used Austrian
currency, but when this paper money became worthless in the inflation of 1921,
the Czechoslovakian Government held up the value of this money, and on a given
date separated it from Austrian currency by stamping all notes in the country
with a Czechoslovakian brand. Unfortunately,"
says Mr. Lockhart, "the Jews in the A.O. Bank had been too far-seeing. Instead
of sending the bank-notes into Czechoslovakia on the given day, they had transferred
interest-bearing Treasury notes. The Czechs had stamped the bank-notes. . . .
Greed for interest had defeated its own ends. . . . If the 148,000,000 Treasury
notes of the A.O. Bank had a Czech value, they were worth over £1,000,000. If
they had an Austrian value they were worthless. Without the assets the Governor
(of the Bank of England) could not go ahead with his scheme." This
was where the services of Mr. Lockhart came in. He was to try and persuade the
Czechoslovakian Government to make this worthless pile of paper (if Austrian)
into a million sterling (if Czech) . The Government felt disinclined to do anything
of the kind, but in the end gave the A.O. Bank a loan of 148,000,000 kronen at
1 per cent. Six months later, as a reward, the Czechs were allowed to float a
loan of £10,000,000 in New York and London. In this manner, that section of Central
Europe, represented by the parties interested in the A.O. Bank, was brought under
the control of the Bank of England. OBTAINING
CONTROL OF INDUSTRY At the World Economic
Conference of 1927, there was a suggestion of the "rational organisation of production
and distribution" by the "bringing of the whole of an industry under intelligent
direction and administration." One of the most prominent men in this movement
in Britain was the Jew, the late Sir Alfred Mond, head of the powerful Imperial
Chemical Industries(ICI) combine. In 1927 he sought the support of the trade unions
for his scheme of rationalisation. The General Council of the Trades Union Congress
stated that "while rationalisation can never prove an alternative to nationalisation,
the movement was prepared to welcome such changes in the organisation of industry
during the period of private ownership as would lead to improvements in the efficiency
of industry and to the raising of the standards of living of the people." Here
we had the financiers and the socialists more or less agreeing on basic principles.
When Mr. Norman made his first appearance
before the Macmillan Committee, on March 26, 1930, he said that he was devoting
some attention to "an attempted study of industry, mainly the heavy basic industries
of the country." His idea was that "the salvation of industry in this country,
without which commerce and finance cannot long continue, lies in the process of
rationalisation . . . and that is to be achieved by the unity or unification,
or marriage, of finance and industry." Here
was an open admission that the Bank of England was attempting to get control of
industry and organise it for its own ends under big trusts. Small,
independent firms were to be crushed out. Mr.
J. W. Beaumont Pease, chairman of Lloyds Bank, in his evidence before the same
committee, said: "Of course, the whole question of amalgamation affords a certain
amount of ironical amusement to bankers, because as the wheel comes round what
used to be considered a danger, a step in the direction of monopolies, and so
on, is, in other industries, now held out very much as one of the means of salvation."
Crushed financially by the Bank of England's
deflation policy, British industry in sheer desperation was ready to accept any
solution. We see exactly the same technique in this country where the local
agents of the Bank of England are pursuing the same policy. The result is the
centralisation of industry into monopolies and the rapid growth of innumerable
bureaucratic boards to control the primary producers. Sir
Ernest Harvey, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, admitted in his evidence
that about October, 1929 - about the beginning of the world depression - the Bank
of England had set up a Securities Management Trust to buy up control of industrial
concerns. As we have seen, the policy of credit contraction was initiated by the
Wall Street group through their control of the Bank of England. Mr.
Louis T. McFadden, ex-President of the Pennsylvania Bankers' Association, and
for twelve years Chairman of the U.S.A. House of Representatives' Banking and
Currency Committee, speaking in the U.S.A. Congress on December 15, 1931, said,
in referring to the slump: "It was not accidental. It was a carefully contrived
occurrence - the International Bankers sought to bring about a condition of despair
here so that they could emerge as rulers of us all."
Mr. E. L. Payton, in giving evidence before the Macmillan Commission on behalf
of the National Union of Manufacturers on February 27, 1930, dealt with the increasing
difficulty of small firms to obtain capital. Further evidence of the elimination
of small traders was given by Sir William Perring, President of the National Chamber
of Trade, an organisation representing some 360 local Chambers of Trade. He said:
"In each provincial town which you go into today, if you walk up the main street
you will see five businesses out of six are multiple shops or chain shops. That
is the position in the main street. They have been secured at fabulous rents and
premiums. The banks handle the money of these multiple shops. The small man is
being squeezed out, and I think ultimately it will be to the detriment of our
people as a nation." Australians might look around and see if they can see
similar tendencies in this country. A FURTHER
MOVE In February, 1931, Mr. Norman told
the Committee that his first company - Securities Management Trust - had been
developed into a much larger concern - the Bankers' Industrial Development Company.
Its capital was provided by the Bank of England and the big acceptance houses.
Some nasty allegations were made that the amalgamations of British industries
were being affected by "foreign money." Sir Otto Niemeyer said on this point:
"I would not feel the least compunction about taking every sort of money from
whatever source I could get it." The head of the Bankers' Industrial Development
Company was Sir Guy Granet, who also gave evidence before the Macmillan
Committee. Sir Guy was partner in Higginson and Company, international bankers.
Apart from Sir Guy, the board controlling this Development Company consisted of
Mr. Norman; Baron Schroeder, of the international Jewish-banking
house of J. H. Henry Schroeder and Company; Mr. Peacock of Baring's (who,
in former years, were London agents for the Wall Street group, Kuhn, Loeb and
Co.), and Mr. Bruce Gardner, managing director of the Bank of England Securities
Management Trust. This fine group of "British"
financiers set out to get control of British industries.
That they were finding the average Britisher rather hard to deal with was evidenced
by Sir Guy Granet's admission that tact was needed. He told the Macmillan Commission
that "It would be a dreadful thing if industry thought that here was a body of
bankers who were going to tell industry how they ought to be organised: that would
at once get their bristles up." Asked as to the position of the banks with
respect to, say, the steel industry, Sir W. H. N. Goschen, chairman of the National
Provincial Bank, stated: "They are very much in the hands of the banks in this
respect, that the banks are able to put them in liquidation, if necessary."
Lord Macmillan asked: "The power behind your advice is 'If you do not take that
course we shall cut off your supplies?" Sir W. H. N. Goschen replied: "Yes."
The arrogant attitude of the bankers towards industry can be gathered by the following
statement by Sir Ernest Harvey: " . . . We claim the right to assure ourselves
that those who are to be in charge of the industry are qualified. . . that there
are financial advisers who can be relied upon from the point of view of finance.
In that way we claim the right to a certain amount of control. . . ." MONTAGU
NORMAN "SACKS" A STEEL-"KING" That Mr.
Norman wields despotic powers and over-rides anyone who gets in the way of his
policy was clearly demonstrated when he removed Sir William Firth, chairman of
Richard Thomas and Co.; the £20,000,000 steel and tinplate combine. Sir William
Firth started his career as a 10/- a week office boy. It was entirely due to his
initiative and drive that the Richard Thomas steel combine was recognised throughout
the world for the quality of its work. Control of the company was achieved by
the Bank of England in 1938 when it lent the company seven million pounds to complete
the great plant at Ebbw Vale. Speaking on this matter, Sir William Firth said:
"I feel like a captain who has lost his ship and is here to report to the owners.
About two years ago, in very dirty weather, some pirates pushed us on the rocks,
and boarded us disguised as 'national interests' men. . . . The method of obtaining
control by the appointment of a control committee is a technique new in this country;
as unjust as it is un-English." The main control
committee, said Sir William, consisted of three persons - the Governor of the
Bank of England, Lord Greenwood and Mr. Lever. It had been estimated by the banks,
said Sir William, that the company would need about £7,000,000 to complete its
capital expenditure program and operate its plant. But time had proved the maximum
needs to be less than three and a half millions, despite heavy A.R.P. expenditure.
There is not the slightest doubt that seven instead of three and a half millions
was thrust upon the company in order to acquire control. Commenting
on Sir William's dismissal as a result of "irreconcilable difference within the
board," the New English Weekly of May 9, 1940, under the heading "Finance
Over Industry," said: "This dismissal of an industrial pioneer has taken place
at the hands of a 'control committee,' instituted with a vast capital two years
ago, to finance the large-scale improvements then made at Ebbw Vale, and presided
over by Mr. Montagu Norman; a committee powerful enough by its joint control of
finance and technique to dominate the entire steel industry and, in fact, designed
to do so. . . . But the dismissal of an industrialist, who had brought British
steel production up to the best world standard, and who has been shown to have
the confidence of his employees, by a committee consisting partly of bankers and
partly of his rivals, is an extremely bad omen for the future of British industry.
. . . Whatever the need of a true national planning . . . the worst possible approach
to it is a surreptitious oligarchic control in the interests of a usurping finance;
and we join with Sir William Firth, and those who have contentedly worked with
him, to demand an investigation of the gangsterdom which has put him on the spot."
This was part of Mr. Norman's program of
"rationalising" industry. In the English
Social Crediter of May 25, 1940, the following item appeared in connection
with the above matter: "It is reported that certain sections of the huge plant,
which in the present circumstances must be of national importance, were only working
part time, and that the steel which had been imported to the Vale to keep the
plant working to capacity was now going elsewhere." War or no war, the Bank
of England's program marches on. SOVIETISM
BY STEALTH Apart from attempting to obtain
control of industry, there was a move to obtain control of agriculture by the
establishment of Boards. I shall deal with this matter at some length, because
the future of civilisation may well depend upon the attitude that the primary
producers adopt towards this plot to "Sovietise" them. Every
representative of International Finance who has ever been in this country - such
as Mr. Bruce - has urged "planning" of primary production. It is essential that
we understand the origin and motives of this sinister plan. Evidence given before
the Macmillan Commission revealed that the Bank of England had set up an Agricultural
Mortgage Corporation. Sir Otto Niemeyer took a leading part in this and became
a director. The chairman was Sir W. H. N. Gosehen, chairman of the National Provincial
Bank. Allegedly the corporation was for the purpose of "assisting" agriculture.
In 1931, there came into existence in England
a movement for promoting "Planned Economy." Sir Basil P. Blackett, director of
the Bank of England, was the first chairman. He was succeeded by Mr. Israel Moses
Sieff, the present holder of that position. An examination of the list of people
actively engaged in P.E.P. (Political and Economic Planning) reveals a curious
mixture of conservatives, financiers and socialists. Mr. Sieff is director
of a chain-store enterprise in England called "Marks and Spencer." His idea is
to run the whole nation as one big trust. By
1934 the "P.E.P." was in action in the following organisations: Milk Marketing
Board, Pig Marketing Board, Electricity Grid, British Broadcasting Corporation,
Import Duties Advisory Board, Town and Country Planning Board, United Steel Companies
Ltd. The following extract appeared in an
English journal in 1940: "The Political and Economic Planning group, under the
chairmanship of Mr. Sieff, is out to reduce every public and private activity
in England to a compact mechanism of State-aided monopolies, combines and chain-stores,
under the control of a few financiers. . . . This wonderful and genial movement
for the enslavement of Great Britain is making a fair headway, and has succeeded
in laying hands on pigs, bacon, milk, potatoes, turnips, buses. . . . The latest
to join the movement is the National Birth Control Association, which has, accordingly,
altered its name to Family Planning Association. It will tell when and whom to
marry, how many children to bring into the world, when to divorce, when and how
to die, all according to the lofty standards of a group of financiers' needs and
benefits." Speaking about this Political and
Economic Planning group and its aims, Mr. McFadden is reported, in the Congressional
Record of June 8, 1934, as saying: "This plan is already in operation in the
British Government by means of the Tariff Advisory Board, which in many of its
powers is somewhat comparable to the National Recovery Administration in the United
States. This group organisation has gathered all data and statistics obtained
by governmental and private organisation in administrative, industrial, social,
educational, agricultural and other circles; and Army, Navy and airport statistics
are in their hands. This has been made possible from the fact that the Prime Minister,
Ramsay MacDonald, being a Fabian, the 'Political Economic Plan' Fabian group has
had all archives at its disposal. Through
the Tariff Advisory Board created in February, 1933, and headed by Sir George
May, the control over industry and trade is being firmly established. This board
works in direct connection with the Treasury and with it devises tariff policy.
It has also been granted the powers of a law court and can exact under oath that
all information concerning industry and trade be given it. "Iron and steel, as
also cotton industrials in England, have been ordered by the Tariff Advisory Board
to prepare and submit plans for the reorganisation of their industries and warned
that, should they fail to do so, a plan for complete reconstruction would be imposed
upon them. The Tariff Advisory Board has been granted default powers and can,
therefore, impose its plan. . . . An interesting
bit of information has come to me in this connection to the effect that this Fabian
group has close connections with the Foreign Policy Association in New York City.
This Foreign Policy Association was largely sponsored by the late Paul M. Warburg,
and has received the close attention and support of Bernard M. Baruch and Felix
M. Frankfurter. "Many serious people in England feel that this Fabian organisation
practically controls the British Government and that this Government will soon
be known as 'His Majesty's Soviet Government.' It is asserted that both Prime
Minister MacDonald and his son belong to the organisation and that the movement
is well financed and well organised, and intends to practically Sovietise the
English-speaking race. About three months
after the passage of the National Recovery Act of the United States, when Israel
Moses Sieff was urged by members of his committee to show more activity, he said:
"Let us go slowly for a while and wait and see how our plan carries out in" America. FINANCE
AND SOCIALISM Sovietism, under the title
of the New Deal, is being rapidly foisted on the American public. The fundamental
idea is the same as "planning" and Communism: everything run by big State trusts
controlled by Finance. Production is made to fit the money system which alone
creates a set of circumstances conducive to getting the people to accept these
ideas. The financiers know that primary producers have an independent outlook
and have always found them hardest to deal with. This was particularly so in Russia.
There should be no need for me to comment on the similar manner in which the primary
producers are being treated in this country. Writing
of P.E.P. in 1935, Captain Bernard Acworth, R.N., said: "In the winter of 1933-34,
Mr. Harold MacMillan, M.P., published a book, 'Industrial Reconstruction,'
in which, with the aim of establishing an equilibrium between supply and demand,
and so of eliminating price-cutting, proposals were made for amalgamating all
firms in the several industries into one corporation which would control the industry.
The author frankly admitted that the proposed corporations would constitute monopolies
and that this would tend to make prices rise to the consumer." In
November, 1934, Lord Melchett (of the great Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI)
and a member of P.E.P.) introduced an Industrial Reorganisation (Enabling) Bill
into the House of Lords. Its purpose was to promote the formation of corporations
of the type proposed by Mr. MacMillan. It only secured a first reading, but an
Industrial Reorganisation League, with Mr. MacMillan as chairman, came into existence
to secure support in industry for its principles. . . . It should also be noted
that Mr. Walter Elliot, Minister for Agriculture, is reported to have said on
March 20, 1935, that 'the United Kingdom policy' for agriculture was 'the application
of the principle of planning in all its phases.' 'It involves,' he said, 'the
planning of supply regionally, nationally, and internationally, and as a consequence,
the planning of consumption. . . .' " The planning of consumption!
There you have the financiers' plot in a few words.
Instead of the people having sufficient money to buy what they produce, production
will be planned - which means destroyed and restricted - in order to fit the artificial
money shortage. The Apple and Pear scheme in this country is a working example
of such planning. THE BANK OF ENGLAND AS
A MODEL Mr. Sieff, chairman of P.E.P.,
embodies his ideas on planning in a remarkable pamphlet entitled "Freedom and
Planning." This document was kept secret for some considerable time before
copies were obtained and given publicity. In a broad-sheet issued by the P.E.P.,
dated April 25, 1933, the following extract emphasises the secrecy and insidious
policy of this group: "You may use without acknowledgment anything which appears
in this broad-sheet on the understanding that the broad-sheet and group are not
publicly mentioned, either in writing or otherwise. This strict condition of anonymity,
upon which the broad-sheet goes to you, is essential in order that the group may
prove effective as a non-partisan organisation making its contribution outside
the field of personal and party polemics." It is interesting to note that
Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, son of the late Ramsay MacDonald, belongs to this group,
and now represents the British Government in Canada. Sir Geoffrey Whiskard spent
some of his time advocating Political and Economic Planning while holding the
position of Trade Commissioner in this country.
A careful study of Mr. Sieff's articles on "Planning" clearly indicates the
broad lines of a plan similar to that mentioned by Mr. Montagu Norman before the
Macmillan Committee. Bearing this in mind, the following extract from Section
24 of these articles is revealing: "The Bank of England has in the course of its
history lost practically all of its original profit-making characteristics and
become in fact, if not in form, a leading example of a Public Utility Corporation
devoted to rendering public service. It has also many of the features of a self-governing
institution, its relation to the Government delicately adjusted so as to combine
both due subordination and administrative independence so as to offer a significant
parallel to the new institutions suggested earlier in the spheres of industry
and distribution. It would appear to be sufficiently flexible to enable it to
adapt itself to filling its place in the new order without requiring any radical
changes in its constitution." SOME
SINISTER EXTRACTS Australian electors
might ask themselves if there is any resemblance between the trends in this country
and the following extracts from Sieff's articles. It is stated of the farmer and
manufacturer that: "He may be conceived of as remaining in full control of
his farm or factory, but receiving from the duly constituted authority instructions
as to the quantity and quality of his production, and as to the markets in which
he will sell." Small retailers must be
dealt with: "The waste -involved in . . . retail shops, one shop for every
twenty households, cannot be allowed to block the flow of goods from producer
to consumer." I would mention. that it
is not the retail system which has blocked the flow of goods, but the present
financial system. However, apparently the small independent retailers are to be
crushed and the great chain-store monopolies to be extended. On the political
side we learn that "big consequent changes will follow in the machinery of government."
The following gem should commend itself to
the farmers who are now feeling the full blast of planning under various boards
in this country: "Whether we like it or not - and many will dislike it intensely
- the individualistic manufacturer and farmer will be forced by events to submit
to far-reaching changes in outlook and methods." Also
the following: "What is required, if with only a view to equitable treatment
of individuals, is transfer of ownership of large blocks of land - not necessarily
of all the land in the country, but certainly of a large proportion of it - into
the hands of the proposed statutory corporations and public utility bodies and
of land trusts." BANK OF ENGLAND AND
NEW ZEALAND The history of our sister Dominion
has been one of ever-increasing financial dictatorship; ironically enough, the
very Government which was elected with an overwhelming mandate from the people
to break the private money monopoly has tightened the chains of bondage. I refer
to the Labour Government. The Colony of New
Zealand was founded in 1840, and with it the foundations of the debt swindle which,
at that time, had reduced the Mother Country to abject poverty as an aftermath
of the Napoleonic Wars. A Government Colonial Bank of Issue was established in
New Zealand in 1850, but, as it was only empowered to issue notes in exchange
for coin, it was of little use, and lasted only six years. Private trading
banks then started, one of the first being the Union Bank of Australia, which
is connected with the International Banking Ring. The Bank of New Zealand was
established in 1861, and its connection with the Government was very intimate
from the beginning. This bank handled the Government's account until the establishment
of the Reserve Bank in 1934. The establishment
of the Reserve Bank was the result of Sir Otto Niemeyer's visit on behalf of Mr.
Montagu Norman, and his policy of world dictatorship through the establishment
of Central Reserve Banks throughout the world - particularly the British Empire.
The following statements by prominent New Zealand citizens from 1860 onwards clearly
reveal the manner in which banking interests have governed the policy of the Dominion:
Sir William Fox, several times Premier of
New Zealand, said in Parliament on August 21, 1868: "I only wish it was possible
to exclude from this House a certain power behind the Treasury, or any other corporation,
which had proved so capable of making the Ministry work in a diametrically opposite
direction from that in which they at first intended to work, and so manifestly
opposed to the interests of the colony. I cannot blame the recognised agents of
the Bank or any influence they have brought to bear upon this House or upon the
Ministry. . . . I do not hesitate to say this influence which has been exercised
is a most mischievous interference with the independence of this House, and if
it were possible to get hold of such an impalpable element, a Bill ought to be
passed to exclude it from this House." WHAT
SIR GEORGE GREY SAID Sir George Grey,
speaking in Parliament in 1875, said: "I believe, for reasons which I shall
presently show, that it would be actually in the power of one wealthy establishment
in New Zealand to have any person they chose sent out here as Governor who would
be likely to support their interests." As Sir George Grey had been five
times Governor of different parts of the British Empire, he knew what he was talking
about. Later, in 1883, he said: "I conscientiously
believe that two or three great establishments, all really under one directorate,
do exercise in the Legislature of this country an undoubted and dangerous influence.
I sincerely believe that the existing Government is maintained in its place by
these bodies.. . . I appeal to many honourable gentlemen sitting here whether
they do not feel helpless of fighting the great phalanx opposed to us now. . .
. I say that even among the voters it will be a long time before that independence
can come about which ought to prevail, because I fear many of them are, in some
manner, entangled with engagements which will place them at the mercy of those
persons who rule those different great bodies of which I speak. I go further and
say - and in saying this I know, of course, that I create, and must create, a
great many enemies - I firmly believe that the same persons, by monetary influence,
control a great portion of the press. . . . One great central power in New Zealand
oppresses it from end to end. That central power is moved by the Premier, and
the Premier is the solicitor of these great moneyed corporations. Is it just?
Does it give the people of New Zealand a fair chance? Is it not hard for a man
to know that if he cries for justice some debt upon his estate may be made the
cause of his ruin instantly?... Is it right for us to feel degraded by knowing
that such is the case here? . . . As long as this continues I see no hope for
ourselves or our country." This was strong
talk from a Governor. Perhaps this representative of the King had heard something
about the Royal prerogative of issuing the nation's money supply. Sir Francis
Bell said on August, 28, 1895: "The Bank (of New Zealand) is repeating
what it did last year. They are holding a pisto |