OTTAWA'S TASK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 168, 18 July 1932, Page 6

OTTAWA'S TASK.

T was disappointed, as I am sure were luindredc of your thoughtful readers, in not finding any reference to currency reform in Dr. Belshaw's suggestions towards world recovery, as published in your issue of the 12th inst. The continuance of the financial system, which, it is now freely admitted by eminent economists and even bankers, has contributed more than any other factor to the dreadful anomaly of general poverty in the midst of ever-increasing abundance, will prevent any lasting improvement in the diseased condition* of the Empire and of the world. It is admitted that a principal cause of the world's misery is international borrowing causing the existence of creditor and debtor nations. If there is one thing that causes fear, distrust and hatred it is the relationship of debtor and creditor, and the world can never become completely happy until international relation* are restored to conditions of reciprocity under which international trade will be resumed on the terms of amicable exchange* of goods mutually desirable instead of on the terms of competition and the creation of debts. As all students of economics are well aware, proper international trade is barter, and barter never results in debt; so no nation should attempt to profiteer at the expense of any other. International trade that creates the position of debtor and creditor is therefore fundamentally anomalous and absurd; it is really the result of a system of topsy-turvy finance that doe<s not truly reflect the position intended to be established between the contracting parties. Tin , , true purpose of international trade, to distribute the real wealth of the eartli among its people by a friendly exchange of superfluities bringing advantage to all concerned, has been changed under the impenetrable smoke screen of our vicious iinancial system into a struggle for foreign markets to get rid of goods abroad that are really needed at home, and we have the pitiable spectacle of a world beggaring itself because it regards the selling of its good things a<3 of mere iin porta iu-e than the enjoyment and consumption thereof. Ottawa's task will be an impossible one long as mankind sees a topsy-turvy image of the economic reality and conceives of industry as a game of '"beggar my neighbour." BARRISTER.