The Minister will agree that the Central Bank can at present build up its reserves in any form it likes. If it has gold it can dispose of gold. I want a discussion on whether we have not yet reached the stage of having to decide whether it would be wise or not to keep in the custody of the Central Bank, for the benefit of the State, precious metals.
We have, within the possession of and belonging to the State, silver coinage in circulation. This Bill proposes that it be called in and that it be substituted by another base metal or mixture of base metals. The Central Bank have the right under the Act setting it up, to call in these. The Minister himself indicated in the other House that by calling in silver coinage and melting it down and replacing it by a substitute coinage and by melting down and selling bullion, a profit of £1,000,000 would be made. My attitude to that is that it would only be £1,000,000 profit in paper money, or, if you like, a book-keeping transaction.
What I am asking to achieve is that there should be a direction from this House to the Central Bank to hold that bullion. We know that it is of more value to-day than its face value. It was more valuable before devaluation than its face value. It is a metal which to-day is one of the scarcest and dearest. It has an international value. If the Minister has followed the price of silver in the years preceding devaluation, he would have found that it had gradually crept up to a price much higher than it had ever been before. Since devaluation, it has gone up to such an extent that the Minister himself admitted that one of the reasons why it was being called in was that there would be a big loss to the State if he had to replace the silver coinage by issuing new coinage to replace the worn out coins.
I am asking the Minister to make this House the authority which will decide for the Central Bank as to whether or not they will release or sell for paper money the valuable metals which we may find would serve us, in times to come, much more than just the credit in paper notes which we would get for the disposal of this metal. I am asking the Minister to accept this amendment and so make this House the deciding authority as to whether the bank shall or shall not sell and dispose of this particular bullion after the passing of this Bill.