“Prejudice In New Zealand About Eastern Europe”

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30339, 15 January 1964, Page 5

“Prejudice In New Zealand About Eastern Europe”

There was far too much prejudice in New Zealand about the countries of Eastern Europe, said Mr W. Rosenberg, senior lecturer in economics at the University of Canterbury. Mr Rosenberg has returned from 11 months’ study leave. He worked in Geneva at the invitation of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, and visited Jugoslavia, Rumania, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and East Berlin.

“There is a tremendous amount of prejudice here about those countries,” said Mr Rosenberg. “You get the idea here that their people are slaves and povertystricken, whereas in fact their systems are accepted and they are quite critical —but within the system rather than against it.” He said there had been a lot of sentimental outcries about the Berlin wall and the recent heartrending reunions, but in fact the problem could be overcome very quickly if West Berlin liked to come to some arrangement with East Berlin. “It is true,” he said, “that the wall is there to keep the East Berliners in. West Berliners would be allowed to cross over, but that would involve passports and so on, which in turn would involve a certain amount of recognition by West Germany of the East German regime.” Co-operation Impressive

Mr Rosenberg said there was no cold war in Geneva. “To see the co-operation from the inside is very impressive,” he said. “I was in constant contact with the representatives of all European countries and saw how international co-operation is possible and how easy it is in fact. “Co-operation between the Soviet Union representatives and those of other countries has civilised both camps. They make compromises and approach each other. How foolish it is not to have the Chinese there too. It would have the same effect on them. Ideologies have to take second place.” Mr Rosenberg’s job was to edit a market research study for the Food and Agriculture Organisation on the trends and prospects of European timber from 1950 to 1975. The commission’s continuous studies of Western and Eastern economic systems had the full co-operation of all governments, and Mr Rosenberg said he was consequently left with a very favourable impression of the commission’s publications. A study was now being made of planning in Europe. "Planning has now lost its stigma,” he said, “and it is the thing to be done in both West and East. Western and Eastern economies are coming closer together. There is more and more planning in the West with moie and more elaborate methods. The West learns from the East in planning, but the East in learning increasingly from the market economies of the West”

Learning Profit Motive Mr Rosenberg said there was a growing tendency in the East to learn the profit motive from the Western economies. In a way Jugoslavia was the most interesting of the Eastern European countries because it was a country where a complete reconciliation was being made between socialism and capitalism. “The only difference,” he said, “is that in Jugoslavia the businesses are run by workers’ councils and not by private businessmen. Each business stands on its own feet, however. They are great believers in competition and the profit motive. The workers share the profits and also allocate the profits, which is even more surprising. Once the workers have been made completely responsible for running a business they are, if anything, more conservative than Western businessmen.” Mr Rosenberg said there was a growing tendency among other Eastern European countries to learn from Jugoslavia. Poland, Hungary

and East Germany were adopting a lot of Jugoslavia’s ideas. East Germany had now adopted a system with greater emphasis on the individuality of the business firm, which introduced the profit motive as one of the guiding factors which would shape the firm’s destiny. He said there was a tendency to replace physical planning with financial planning. Results were being gauged by money values instead of just on the basis of quantity. This was causing a certain amount of disturbance. Last year had been a year of readjustment leading to a slowing down in ttie rate of growth, but there was little doubt that once the new systems were adopted greater acceleration would take place. Mr Rosenberg said the Rus-sian-Chinese conflict could be understood in terms of stages of development. China was at the stage where physical planning led to rapid development, while in Russia the question of what to produce had now become just as important as how much to produce. The profit motive was now very important. “In capitalism,” said Mr Rosenberg, “profit is the master and production the servant. In Communism production remains the master and profit becomes a more efficient servant.” Mr Rosenberg found a feeling of real vitality in Jugo-

slavia, a great deal of personal freedom, freedom of discussion, and Western newspapers on sale everywhere, ing of real vitality in Jugoing that there was too much Russian influence. Reconciliation Hungary and Poland had made a reconciliation between Romain Catholicism and Communism. He found that the population of Warsaw was strongly and devoutly Roman Catholic, but there was no doubt that they were loyal to the regime. The advantage was that the totalitarian aspects of Communism were reduced. Mr Rosenberg found his movements throughout Eastern Europe quite unimpeded. “There is no more Iron Curtain,” he said, “and the term should be abandoned.” He said he was often asked what New Zealand’s advantage was over the rest of the world, and although he replied that the standard of living was no longer so much higher, he could say that New Zealand was still vastly superior in its system of education. He said it was almost universal in other countries that for every place available at a university, there were five applicants. This was true of Britain, Germany and France, and to some extent, of Eastern Europe—certainly of the economics department at Moscow University. “We should continue to look after our free education and admission to university,” he said. “I was particularly impressed by the growing need to learn foreign languages. New Zealanders should learn languages now, as perfectly as possible, so that they can avail themselves of the knowledge of other countries. In New Zealand people do languages or science—not both. This is a nefarious situation.”