The press SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1960. A Year Of Disappointment

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29401, 31 December 1960, Page 12

The press SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1960. A Year Of Disappointment

There will be few regrets for the end of 1960—a year that began with so much promise and is ending with so little comfort. Whatever the New Year brings it surely cannot produce as much disappoint* ment. The greatest disappointment was the failure of the projected Summit conference. It failed not because of Mr Khrushchev’s very real chagrin and anger over the U2 flights, but because of the apparently negligible prospect of achieving anything substantial. This was a blow to Mr Khrushchev as well as to Western peoples. The democratic half of the world is painfully aware of its own troubles from Berlin to Quemoy; but it should not be forgotten that the Communists have to put up with compromises, too. Though the year was one of disappointment it was also one of high drama, with a dizzy acceleration of history’s advance in Africa. For good and for ill it has been Africa’s year. At one end of the scale Nigeria has passed calmly into independence. At the other, the Congo threatens not only to bring down itself but to shake the United Nations to its foundations. Between these extremes almost every African territory has had its moments of triumph or tragedy. The winds of change have blown incessantly if unsteadily. The emergence of so many new nations in the Dark Continent has been reflected in the new numerical strength of the United Nations, now just one short of a century, and in shifting balances of power. It may £e for 1961 to say whether the influence of the uncommitted nations can, or will, be used to repair the damage done to international order by anarchy in the Congo. African convulsions have endangered the British Commonwealth as well

as the United Nations, because of Dr, Verwoerd’s stubborn insistence on apartheid and republicanism in spite of the distaste other nations have for these policies and their results (at Sharpeville and elsewhere). All these troubles and others have mocked the high hopes of a year ago. Few , compensations have appeared on the other side, though two events may ultimately have a significance ■not yet apparent—the meeting of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope, and the United States’ election of a young, strong-minded, and vigorous President.

The gloom overseas has served to emphasise New Zealand’s domestic good fortune in 1960. The prosperity from record export earnings has seeped through the community, and, though Government spending has remained at too high a level, the national economy has adjusted itself to the tax burdens of 1958 and has enjoyed some lightening of them. The small but darkening cloud on the horizon has been the rapid running down of overseas balances; and this is something to be faced next year. Since the Labour Government had not been particularly successful in organising economic stability it is as well that the year closes with what promises to be a more businesslike administration. As the overseas situation can hardly worsen, short of war, our main worries next year may be internal. How we shall fare depends a great deal on how we adapt ourselves to changes that cannot be avoided. In the hope and belief that New Zealanders are capable of overcoming their relatively minor difficulties and in the expectation that the instinct of self-preservation will persist in even the strongest nations, “ The Press ” is bold enough to wish its readers, fortunate citizens of a fortunate country, “ A Happy New Year ”.