The Daily Worker

Foreign Bonds Crash U. S. Finances To Be Affected

The National government has decided that Great Britain must go off the gold standard, according to latest reports from London. This was decided on at the meeting of the leading British bankers with Ramsay MacDonald, socialist leaders of the National government, which took place Saturday night. So serious is the situation that it has been decided to close the stock exchange Monday. While the decision is to keep the stock exchange closed only one day it is almost inevitable that the exchange will be forced to stay closed for quite a period.

The report from London points out that since about July 15 about 200,000,000 pounds (almost $1,000,000,000) has been withdrawn from London.

The suspension of the gold standard will immediately react with tremendous effect on the financial structure of all capitalist powers. Even the bourgeois London correspondent of the New York Evening Post had to admit the tremendous effect that the suspension of the gold standard by Great Britain would have.

"If a world-wide financial cataclysm is to be averted, America must perforce take action quickly. It must be remembered that were England to depart from the gold standard, the effect on America would be great."

England has already gone off of the gold standard. The entire capitalist world will soon shake as a result. This was pointed out by Flandin, French Minister of Finance on Saturday. Flandin stated that,

"If the English lose confidence in sterling, it would mean universal disaster—a catastrophic fall throughout the world. That is why France has intervened (with America in recent credit extension) and will not hesitate to intervene again."

The financial crisis on top of the industrial crisis greatly sharpens the danger of war, especially in view of the Japanese attack on British markets in China.

The inevitable suspension of the gold standard was pointed out by one of the leaders of the Communist Party of Great Britain more than a month ago. Comrade R. Palme Dutt in the September issue of the Labor Monthly pointed out that at this time it was practically impossible that Great Britain could stop the gap between its foreign lending and the export of goods which has fallen sharply. "At this time," comrade Dutt pointed out, "the real bankruptcy of the whole economic system will come

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