FREER TRADE

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24369, 22 September 1944, Page 6

FREER TRADE

RECONSTRUCTION AFTER THE WAR

HELP FOR IMPOVERISHED

COUNTRIES

. “We cannot afford after the war to have impoverished countries here and there,” said Professor A. H. Tocker, Rector of Canterbury University College, when addressing the Christchurch branch of the Australian and New Zealand 'Economics Society, last evening. ‘‘They would only be festering sores, with social and industrial upheavals, which would be an embarrassment to the rest of the world.” Professor Tocker was outlining recent proposals for economic reconstruction after the wqr, which had been propounded by experts at conferences attended by representatives of the United Nations. The establishment of an . international bank would provide loans for those countries which needed money for the promotion of industries, he declared, and so assist in getting them back into production. “We have felt some effects of the war in this country,” he added, “but nothing like what the European countries have experienced. Conditions in some of them must be appalling.” ■ _ The schemes propounded, said Professor Tocker, were only tentative, and what measure of success they would achieve remained to be seen. But there was a general desire, he believed,^ for freer trade among the nations, and. to avoid the mistakes that followed the peace after the last war. Summarising his address, Professor Tocker said that there were three main problems to be faced: (!) • jrelief (for there would be literally starving millions to be fed when peace came); 12) the facilitation of freer trade; ann (3), the restoration of production (which would, of course, include the manufacturing and purchase of equipment). . . ' . , The Atlantic Charter, though drawn up upon general lines, certainly indicated a general desire for freer trade. And that, he believed, would be one way by which possible wars of the future could be avoided.