Every nation in the world has an interest in the gold supply and the gold reserve in bank throughout the world.
There are those in England who still believe that this war will be the supreme test of the gold monometallic base for money and banking.
There is no thought as yet that Germany, if driven off the gold base, will seek a silver base.

It has always been declared by the bimetallists that the successor of gold monometallism will be paper, and Germany is expected to go upon a paper rather than a silver basis.
In exchange operations German paper is about 8 per cent discount, but exporting gold or buying or selling gold at a premium is by law forbidden.

All are penal offenses.
England can stand upon a gold basis because she commands the gold promises to pay, but in war time she can threaten the stability of the monetary systems of many countries.

The United States saved its gold base by closing the Stock Exchange, but the South American countries were quickly in distress for gold.
To put India on a gold basis a few years ago, a tax was levied on Indian silver imports with the result that India has absorbed $400,000,000 in gold from England in the last five or six years, and where payments to India were formerly one-quarter gold and three-quarters silver, they are now one-quarter silver and three-quarters gold.
All these matters are being sharply watched by the English economists.
A fifth lesson we may draw from the war is the necessity for a larger official representation abroad.

It was fortunate that before the outbreak of the war the American embassy in London had been moved to larger quarters by the gardens west of Buckingham Palace.
The strain that was thrown upon that embassy for information, passports, transportation, etc., was something terrific.