The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 1932. PROSPECTS AT LAUSANNE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 135, 9 June 1932, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 1932. PROSPECTS AT LAUSANNE.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good thai tcc can do.

Next week the representatives oi' the nations meet at Lausanne to face the task of solving the problems of Avar debts and reparations. At this conference the question to be considered is whether posterity can really be made to pay the costs of the war. Mr. Thomas has said that the war obligations hang like a nightmare over the world, and they must be settled before there is any substantial prospect ot' restoring general prosperity. Britain stands in the position of it debtor and creditor among the nations. >Shc owes large sums to the United States, and is owed slightly larger sums by Europe. Britain has made remarkable efforts to meet her obligations, and has done far more than the other allies, but it lias been said repeatedly in recent months that her power to continue the payments on her debts depends on the amounts she receives from France, Italy and her smaller debtors. This, in turn, depends upon Germany's capacity to pay reparations. If reparation payments ceased Britain would be left to pay an average annuity of £38,000,000 to America for the next fifty years. What attitude will America adopt when it final settlement is arranged? Will she, for the sake of trade recovery and international well-being, agree to the cancellation of reparations and war debts? This is tho outstanding issue, yet the American Government will not bo represented at Lausanne. What happens at this conference may be thought only a matter of distant concern to the average New Zealander, but it should be borne in mind that the indirect effects will quickly be felt through the markets of Britain and the trend of world trade. The importance of the conference cannot be exaggerated.

The results of Lausanne will have an important bearing upon other conferences to be held this year, and especially upon the International Economic Conference which has been proposed by Britain and accepted by the United States. Collaboration is necessary to bring about a general reduction in tariffs, to restore stability in currencies and public finances, and to establish the world's economic system on a new and better basis. Five years ago a similar conference was held to deal with these problems, but in the interval th-e clash of national interests has become more acute aE.d the play of opposing forces more disturbing. The world to-day is in urgent need of co-operation among the governments. The conference now being held at Geneva to deal with the question of disarmament is one attempt; that at Lausanne will be another. Then in July there is the Imperial Conference at Ottawa, which is confined to seeking ways and means for the rehabilitation of the Empire. Finally, toward the end of the year, the wider Economic Conference will represent the climax of this series of efforts towards international reconstruction.

THE SCHOOL AGE

In his specch at Otahuhu yesterday the Minister of Education put his difficulties before his audience candidly and clearly. The cost of education, like the cost of other State services, must come down. As Viscount Snowden, appropriately quoted by the Minister, has said, there are many social services that it is impossible to continue fully in times of depression. Among the economies Mr. Masters has accepted is the raising of the school age to six, and probably he could have introduced several other changes that would have been less unpopular. For, as he said yesterday, with a candour that is not always to be found in Ministerial speeches, the main reason why there is so much objection to the raising of the age is that mothers do not wish to be bothered having their children at homo all day. The State, however, is under no obligation to tako from mothers' shoulders the duty of looking after children of five, and, as Mr. Masters contends, there is no necessity for children to begin their education at that age. They will do just as well —indeed, perhaps better —if they delay going to school until they are six, or even later. There has been too much leaning on the State in education, as in other things; if the pioneers of this country had had no more self-reliance than many New Zealanders have to-day they would never have gone beyond the ports at which they landed. The average mother must realise that it is her duty either to look after her children herself during the day time until a later age, 01* to make some private arrangement for their care. It should not be difficult for mothers to combine to help one another or to provide outside supervision. The State does quite enough when it takes charge of the child at six.

CARE OF THE UNFIT.

The proceedings at Tuesday's meeting: of the Auckland Relief Committee throw into fresh relief the shortcomings of the Unemployment Board's policy. To lay down the rigid rule that men classed as medically unfit for country work must go to the Hospital Board for reiief is to shirk a large portion of the Board's responsibilities. It ignores altogether the obvious fact that there are many degrees of fitness. The sensible course would be to adopt some such classification as Sir Geoige Richardson suggested—fit, temporarily unfit, fit only for light work, and totally unfit. Then the last class could be left to the care of the Hospital Board, and some attempt could be made to bring the temporarily unfit up to the highest standard and find suitable work for those who cannot use pick and shovel. As it is, we have such a ridiculous case as that cited by a correspondent, in which a man who had been on a relief job, and whom the foreman was willing to take back, was refused work because he was not considered lit enough to go I into camp. Such red tape must be cut away.