CHRISTMAS ABROAD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 305, 26 December 1930, Page 6

CHRISTMAS ABROAD.

This is a hard Christmas and New Year season in many countries, and the world has more need than usual for practical goodwill. The distress in our own country is evident to all, but if we could make a close comparison we should probably find that conditions here were better than in any other part of the Empire and in most foreign countries. Our distribution of wealth is relatively even, and our unemployment rate is low. Moreover, in this season we have the advantage of summer, which mitigates to some extent the sharpness of poverty and want. As we read to-day of unemployment in Britain, Germany and the United States, we should remember that it is winter in these countries. There are nearly two and a quarter million unemployed in England, and nearly four million in Germany. But probably the greatest amount of distress is to be found in America. The world has grown so accustomed to the idea of American prosperity, so sedulously spread by Americans themselves, that perhaps it is difficult for foreigners to realise the amount of misery that economic depression and drought have brought upon that country. Our news to-day shows how widespread is the distress. The people of America, moreover, are labouring under this disadvantage, that they have to organise relief hurriedly. No such organisation exists as the State system of unemployment insurance in Britain and Germany. The optimism and intense individualism of the American have prevented such precautions being taken against bad times. The great organising ability of America will be taxed to cope with a situation that has not been paralleled for many years.