The Conference Adjourns.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20920, 29 July 1933, Page 10

The Conference Adjourns.

In his closing presidential address to the World Economic Conference, reported this morning, Mr Ramsay Mac Donald forced a little the note of cheerful faith. It was necessary and right to emphasise the truth that the conference is adjourned, not dissolved; that its work will be continued by Ihc bureau: and that it may be no long time before the delegates can be brought together i again and their views into harmony, i But it is putting an artificially good face on things to say that the con-j ferencc adjourns, not because it is j "defeated" or "discouraged." but | merely because the committees re- j quire "a little longer to continue " their deliberations and to consider " their conclusions." Such words imply, if anything at all, that general agreement has been very near and is now within easy reach; which by no means accurately summarises the history of the conference and its results. It has indeed suffered defeat, and the defeat is indeed disappointing, as Mr Neville Chamberlain confessed; but the defeat i.s j not to be regarded as final. If it were, even the widest measure of agreement among a " sterling bloc " of countries, within the Empire and outside it. such as is the subject of an incompletely supported message this morning, could only be j a second-best success, which would leave many problems > to solve themselves by unpredictable processes, good or evil. Final, defeat would mean that the world, | at the moment of its nearest approach to full international understanding and responsibility, had relapsed into a narrower scope of thought and action, and turned back from a possible new age without entering it. Few will admit such a i possibility. Few will believe that J the causes which have obstructed i the present conference are fixed and I irremovable, or that no new cause | can facilitate international agree-! ment. One thing may be taken for j granted: the solution of any one of the major problems before the nations will instantly lessen the difficulty of the others. They are complex in themselves, but more so because of their interconnexion. Any one of them may provide the key to all. Europe, of course, may j find it in a field not within | the province of the conference: that is, in disarmament and J political security. America may find it along the way of her present experiment, which, whether through success or failure, ma} r bring President Roosevelt again to the point at which ho seemed likely to stand in line with Mr Mac Donald. He, it is worth while to add, did not venture to suggest a date by.which the conference might hopefully resume. It is possible, however, to think of one already marked on the calendar and desirable to forestall. The next debt payments are due in December. I