Act should be modified so as to make provision for the issue of emergency currency in times of acute difficulty, and it came to the conclusion that the provisions of the Currency and Bank Notes Act of 1914 should be continued in force, under which the Bank of England may, with the consent of the Treasury, temporarily issue notes in excess of the legal limit. Thus, instead of the Bank of England being unable to issue any un-covered notes beyond the statutory limit without breaking an Act of Parliament, and consequently having to get a letter from the Chancellor of the Exchequer promising them that he would secure for them an indemnity from Parliament for so doing, they will in future only have to get the consent of the Treasury. There seems to be very little real meaning in this alteration, seeing that under the existing system the Chancellor would naturally not meet the request of the Bank of England for the power to break the law, without consulting his official advisers at the Treasury. This change is therefore merely one of form rather than of principle. The essential thing is that before the Bank can break the statutory limit it will still have to get permission from Whitehall. This necessity, we may be sure, it will move heaven and earth to avoid.
