We have to remember that the recent Crisis in Our Reserves, as the Government has quite rightly reminded us, was accompanied by a moderately healthy underlying balance of payments position.

Therefore, we are in the position that, having had a Reserves Crisis with comparatively healthy underlying trade figures, we are now moving into a half-year in which we are certainly to have rather worse trade figures.

In 1957, though we had a useful surplus on current account, once again we had a Crisis of Reserves because our position as bankers was affected by the feeling of other countries that we were not fully determined to maintain the internal value of our currency.

That would probably explain why we got into difficulties such as those we experienced in 1957 - that was largely a Reserves Crisis.

Do they really want us to involve ourselves again in the desperate sequence of shortages of labour, declining exports, lengthening delivery dates and soaring imports, ending in a Reserves Crisis?