WORLD PROBLEMS

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 293, 6 September 1932, Page 9

WORLD PROBLEMS

Economic Conference NO CLEAR DEFINITION Two Important Omissions official Wireless. Rugby, .September 3. An announcement from Geneva that six representatives have been nominated by the financial and economic organisations of the League of Nations on the preparatory sub-committeB which will probably meet next week, has directed fresh attention to the tasks before the projected World Economic Conference. The subject matter of the Conference, however, is not yet clearly de"The Times" recalls that the American .Government, in its agreement to take part in the Conference, stated categorically that the invitation excluded from the agenda any discussion of tariffs, as well as of war debts. “The Times” says that if tariffs are not to be discussed, the extension to the international field of the Ottawa type of agreements, which was anticipated bv Mr. Stanley Bruce in his recent broadcast address, is clearly ont of the question, and it is difficult to imagine any results from the World Conference which would justify the hopes expressed by .Mr. Baldwin and his colleagues on their return from Ot“A solution of the monetary Problem would be a substantial benefit to world trade, but monetary systems cannot function in vacuo; they are only machinery for facilitating the interchange of goods and services. There is little to be expected from any monetary reform so long as the nations pursue policies of preventing or at any rate hampering this interchange. Nothing can be gained and much lost by attempting to exclude from discussion tariffs and war debts the very problems which call most urgently for solution.”