Page 64 - Demo

Postmus took over in January 1932, and supported the Hertzog administration’s stance on the gold standard. Indeed, on 13 January 1932, the Reserve Bank issued a press statement affirming its position on the matter. Later, Postmus would submit a memorandum to the Select Committee on the Gold Standard, in which the Reserve Bank lent its support to the official position.
“The gold standard is admittedly not a perfect monetary standard, but it is the best yet devised by man,” reads a section of the memorandum.
However, the South African Party’s General Jan Smuts, and other segments of the Union society, including some economists, opposed the maintenance of the gold standard. The political divisions were drawn, and would later prove pivotal as 1932 progressed.
“The country is rapidly bleeding to death from the gold standard, but the Government means to do nothing. ... That is why the South African Party washes its hands of the Select Committee – it is a mere cloak for the nakedness of the Government, and an excuse for inaction and drifting. ... The gold standard means the lowest standard that the wage earner has known in a generation,” charged General Smuts during a heated debate on the subject held on 23 February 1932 in the House of Assembly (Rand Daily Mail, 23 February 1932).
“The gold standard is admittedly not a perfect monetary standard, but it is the best yet devised by man,”
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