The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-11
CREDIT SCHEME OF
 LEAGUE OF NATIONS IS WORKING WELL
Only Serious Obstacle to Suc- ceSsful Application of the Scheme Is Financial
 Difficulties
By Associated Press

London, September Sir Drum . mond-Fraser, organizer of the Inter- national credits schem of the League of Nations, is immensely pleased with the reception 1t has met in Austria He says he can see only one serious obstacle to the successful applica . tion of the scheme to all the cour- tres now tn financial difficulties and 4 that is psychological one.
 X "The trouble" he said, when .e. \ gently interviewed lis that the countries are so unwilling to admit that they need international finau- cial assistance. They seem to feel towards it much as individuals do poor-law' relief. It hurts their ma tional pride to admit that they are impoverished by the war Of courses' he added, If we can make the great success of the rehabilitation of Aus tria. which I believe we shall make, It will be different People will then see q country which has been brought to the lowest depths of bankruptcy gradually becoming prosperous an'i contented again as the result of our bringing it's internal position to the condition in which the international credits scheme can be applied. Thcy will see the currency stabilized and that is one of the most important factors in connection with credit and trade.
 Sounds Paradoxfcal
 Tt may sound paradoxical." he con tinued, "in talking about a country in the position of Austria, to say that credit is sometimes not worth having. But that has been exactly the case owing to the fluctuations oi the Austrian exchange. To my per sonal knowledge there are traders in Austria at this moment who have been offered credit--this was before the proposals of the international scheme were put forward--and sip- ply dared not take the risk of ae- cepting because they did not know what the exchange was going to do next.
 ''In my short stay of three months a fluctuation took place which wonio inevitably have hankrupted anybody who had tried to do business on a large scale. On the day of my ar rival I cashed a check and got 2,60n kronen to the pound. Before I 'eft I~cashed another check and the rate was a,125 kronen to the pound. The international credit scheme will put stop to this fluctuation and to |hc issue of unlimited paper money Whether or not it can be brought back later to the pre-war. parity IS a secondary matter. The really i'm portant thing is to stop it from flue- tuating."
 Further Developments
 Questioned about further develop nients of the scheme, he considered that it mi ght be efficacious in set ting Turkish finance on it's feet again and that it might well be em- lloyed. by Greece, Bulgaria and Ru- mania and possibly later by Poland.
 As far as the great powers are concerned he considered that the scheme was principally of importan.e to America, France and ourselves -Amerfca" he said, lis now rnakin ! d great feature of mass production ! To succeed with this policy she re auires unlimited markets. AS ,o' \ ourselves.'' he continued, "our Flu ropean trade has always been eHor- nous. especially in the near eastern eo,rntrtes. and their markets are now ,rar Bur European trade amounted to completely cut off. Previous to the 200. .ooo. 900 pounds a year lpre-war valuesl. Today, however, just pe- cause central and eastern Europe are unable to buy from us, this enor- mons volume of trade is for the mo ment lost, The international credlts scheme. however, gives us the op- portunity of getting it back, oy es- tahlishing . system of credit Tor the rurchase of essentials, free from in- fIation and secured by assets or a esold value with regular revenue. r5ore than sufficient to pay the in- terest and sinking fund.