CONDITIONS AFTER THE WAR

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23812, 4 December 1942, Page 4

CONDITIONS AFTER THE WAR

* PROFESSOR TOURER’S ADDRESS

BASES FOR PEACE AND SECURITY

The conditions necessary for peace and security after the war were discussed by Professor A. H. Tockcr in an address to the annual meeting of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Assnciation last evening. He summarised them as sound and stable money, wider and freer markets, wider sources of supply, greater individual freedom, and greater flexibility and adaptability to progress. One of the first essentials in reconstruction, said Professor Tocker, was a stable peace in which the nations could have confidence. Then there was economic stability, the lack of which was shown by the fluctuations in exchange rates after the last war. They had a most disrupting effect on trade. Another factor was the number of artificial controls of trade since the last war, which meant that trade was gradually reduced. There was much more stability in a wide, free market than in a Government-controlled market. They did not want the same restrictions on trade again. Economic restrictions had played a part in leading the world into war. The Hitler movement grew out of those conditions, and the problem was to prevent a repetition of them. Professor Tocker said the Atlantic Charter and the Lcase-Lend agreements were illustrations of a general feeling that there was > common job on hand and that the Allies should put what they could into the common pool, without expecting to get it back. He did not imagine that trade could be put on the same basis, but they were evidence of a general desire for international co-operation on a freer basis. If the United States, tremendously strong economically, were to give a lead to the world by adopting a freer system of trading, the results would be far-reaching. It was also suggested that the United States might lend some o< its embarrassing gold stocks at a low rate of interest to other nations. A. gold standard more or less managed itself and was a basis for a stable exchange rate. Professor Tockcr said trade controls of the last few years had to go before they could get real stability and peace. Quotas, embargoes, clearing agreements, licensing, and exchange control gradually stifled trade. The protectionist sentiment was 4 00 strong to get real free trade, but they would have to get back to tariffs as a basis of trade control, because they permitted a certain amount of trade to flow and did not stop it altogether. They should profit by the lessons of the war. One lesson Now Zealand was learning from the Americans was the importance of “getting the job done.” The Americans had shown independence initiative, and self-reliance, largely because of their freedom. With Government control men tended to lose those qualities. Governments had a job to do, to provide a stable basis for reconstruction. He thought the rest could probably be left safely to private enterprise. Reform had to come from the bottom up. because the politician had to meet his electors every three years.