The Daily Alaska empire., 1949-09-20
Currency DevaIuation Now Involving Half of World; !;
 Quiet in U. 5; Canada Ads
(By The Associated Press)

 half the world sent traders in ster-
 ling scurrying for gold and com- i modity stocks today but brought
 little change vn United States
 markets.
 With France and Canada added overnight to. the list of devaluing
 countries, making the total l9, oth- l CTS had still to fall in line. Vest ern Germany is to reduce the value
 of it's. mark. The Hong Kong dol lar fell into the devaluation line up. Holland officially set its de-
 valuation rate for the homeland and Indonesia at about 30 per
 cent. approximately the same as
 Britain.
 The Labor government in Britain
 closed its ranks for the fight of
 it's life. Parliament is due to meet
 next week, on the demand of Win
 ston Churchill and other opposi- tion leaders. Labor unions were
 restive at the prospect of increases in the cost of living, set off by
 rises in the price of bread. London Market Wild London't stock market went wild. Some gold shares sold for nearly triple last Fridays prices. Every where, gold was the toast of the ! day. One reason: The U. s. gov
 ernment buys gold at $35 an ounce,
 paying U. s. dollars. That means
 exporting countries, in getting U.
 s. dollars, can turn them into more
 units of their devalued local cur-
 rencies than they could before. ! So gold producers stand to get
 more.
 | Exchanges in Rome, Milan and ] South Africa shared the excite ment. Tn Italian money markets i the lira fluctuated wildly and cheapened. At Johannesburg,
 brokers struggled to handle thous- ands of orders for gold pouring
 in from many parts of the world. Government bonds gained in
 London, but they had suffered severe losses in the last few weeks in anticipation of devaluation. Paris Bars Trading Trading in foreign stocks was barred in Paris, where the franc opened about per cent under last weeks free market prices. That was at the level sought by the French government.
 In Moscow, economic observers
 believed the Soviet ruble will re- tain it present relation to the dol lar. That will be Moscow's way of saying that it's ruble is as sound as U. s. coin. But Russia is ex- pected to adjust the rate of it's
 ruble in relation to the money of devaluing countries.
 Canadian Action Canada, a great gold producer like South Africa, made com promise devaluation--10 per cent. That means 1t will cost 110 cents to buy an American dollar in Can ada.
 The pounds worth was set at | $3O8 in Canadian funds Thus the effect was to benefit Britain, since
 the pound would have been worth only $2.80 if Canadian dollars had remained at par with U. s. dollars. Over almost all the world, gold was king-and the U. S. dollar grew I mightier.
 Gold Demand Skyrockets Tn Sydney, Australia, gold was the darling of traders. Twenty thousand shares in eighteen dif- ferent gold companies changed hands during hewildering morn- 1 ing session. As news of the world wide gold increase got around. the
 demand skyrocketed.
 Expert opinion, surveying the rise in the value of gold, said
 that it was not a transient thing but likely to be permanent. The effects of Britain's far reaching 30 per cent slash in the
 value of her money was felt in the
 nome islands in almost every walk
 of life. The threat of labor re-
 bellion and imitation were among the most upsetting. Despite the governments appeal to hold the wage line, railway workers began Ia showdown for more money.