Ludwig Erhard Addressing a Session of the World Bank

(Original Caption) Dr. Ludwig Erhard, Germany's Minister of Economic Affairs, speaks at a session of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington. The 57 year old German economist, an earnest advocate for the free flow of currencies between countries, appealing for early convertibility of international moneys, said that doubtless not all member countries of the Bank and Fund are in a position to make their countries convertible to the same extent or at the same rate of speed, but that the necessary conditions are doubtless present in many of the countries. "It is my firm conviction," he said, "that as long as exchange control prevails in the free world it cannot be truly free, and none of use will attain that degree of national economic efficiency which is necessary of get rid of the danger of collectivism once and for all.