To abandon full production in order to get out of a Speculative Crisis, caused by the absence of exchange controls, is at once a confession of failure and a counsel of despair.

We on this side are not prepared, at times of Speculative Crisis and temporary panic on the part of a half-comprehending Government, to accept for a moment their undermining of the very basis on which our currency must finally depend.

The main thing is that it makes us more vulnerable to a Speculative Crisis.

It is, therefore, very important that my right hon. Friend, when faced with movements of this kind and faced, as I think he has been at the present time by circumstances not of his making - unless one adopts the fantasies thought out by the right hon. Gentlemen opposite - in those circumstances, faced with a Speculative Crisis not of his making, should impose a Bank Rate of 7 per cent.