Mr. BENNETT:

So I do.

Mr. GARLAND (Bow River):

I am glad to hear that. We have in our world banking system a debt creating structure unequalled in its ferocity and effect. The mind of man has never devised anything which could so satisfactorily involve the people in debt and keep them there. I would like to quote from the Monthly Review of the Bank of Nova Scotia, one of the best written works we have on current affairs, as follows:

The completion of these adjustments (for the problem is world-wide) would, of course, be considerably hastened by a better distribution of the total available purchasing power, among the countries of the world; for the creditor countries are not lending to the debtor countries as they were lending during the years of prosperity, and must again lend, if their own export trade is to revive; and some of the debtor countries, lacking the loans which previously fortified their purchasing power, can scarcely do more, at the present time, than pay their current obligations.

The conclusion inevitably to be drawn from this statement is that unless the creditor nations proceed to assist the debtor nations to go further into debt, international trade cannot be restored. Of course it cannot. Mr. Neill in his report says much the same thing. He referred to the whole problem and suggested that it was largely because "long before the 1929 collapse high money rates had almost entirely shut off new loans to borrowing countries and with them the concomitant ability to purchase foreign goods."

So we have something that the Prime Minister quite properly objected to and yet supported, namely, a monetary system which compels us to go into debt if we are to continue under the system. Nations to-day under this condition of affairs cannot continue to buy from other nations if they happen to be debtor nations, unless there is some regulation of the whole monetary machine throughout the world, some adjustment of international debts, some modification of the present method of supplying credits. There you have the statements of an economist and a banker, Professor Jackson and Mr. Neill, both of them intimating that until the creditor countries lend more money to the debtor countries, international trade cannot be revived. Is it necessary to say anything further in regard to the shortcomings of a system of that kind?

The Prime Minister said either too much or too little, when he told us the story of the bank that recently-I think he said within a

few days-had come to the treasury board or rather, to the office in Montreal, had deposited there treasury bills which had been purchased with depositors' money and had secured in return $5,000,000 in Canadian currency.

Mr. BENNETT:

I may say that this has

been paid off.

Mr. GARLAND (Bow River):

That is very satisfactory and relieves me of obligation of further comment at this time. But we are in a tangle; I dislike the idea of this resolution being hastily dealt with, and I would prefer to see it go to a committee for further consideration. All members in the house have signified their willingness to consider it further, even the Prime Minister who was good enough to say he had not a closed mind. I therefore move:

That the motion be amended by striking out all the words after "house" in the second line and substituting therefor the following:

"the question of establishing a nationally-owned central bank should be referred to the committee on banking and commerce for consideration and report."