The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 1933. NEW AMERICAN POLICY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 70, 24 March 1933, Page 6

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

FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 1933. NEW AMERICAN POLICY.

For thts cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in Hie distance, And the good that vs can dft.

The fresh news about the American Government's desire to negotiate trade treaties with other countries is made doubly interesting b'y the announcement that President Roosevelt intends to come to an understanding with his Senate beforehand. One of the obstacles to an earlier solution of American problems has been the attitude of the Senate on all questions of external policy. This body, jealous of its privileges, has been a thorn in the side of Presidents, and never more so than in the efforts to find a way out of the tangled problems of to-day. Other countries are also vitally interested in this dual control. Europe has had one experience of the President's limited powers. It accepted President Wilson as speaking for his people, and it found he did not. This difficulty has been foreseen by President Roosevelt, and he seeks to remove it by arriving at some exact definition of the limits within which he may make concessions. First among the problems to be solved is that of war debts, whatever may be said in America about the ui'gency of trade questions. Britain has made her position perfectly clear, and has not given any encouragement to the view in some quarters across the Atlantic that there can be precise bargaining of trade concessions for remission of debts. This does not mean that she is unready to make such concessions, but that she regards the debts as a distinct issue which must be settled separately. The weight of the debts has been increased by at least 50 per cent through the fall, in prices, and the creditor gains directly at the expense of the debtor, but indirectly all this gain, and more, is lost through failure of export markets. This aspect has been abundantly stressed by Britain. Whereas the annuity paid in 1923 represented a value equivalent to six months' exports from Britain to America at that time, the 103'2 payment was equivalent to four years' exports. How long, it may be asked, can Britain pay on that basis ? While trade languishes under the withering touch of war debts, it is subjected to all kinds of restrictions on account of tariff barriers, quotas and fallen exchanges. America is anxious to conclude agreements which will give increased freedom to trade.. If this resolution leads to speedy action it will help to deal with the surplus of goods. If, at the same time, stability can be introduced into international monetary conditions there will be a still further step towards recovery. Perhaps the most hopeful sign for the immediate future is that President Roosevelt wants action.