The Dominion SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 1943. THE ISSUES OF TOMORROW

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 95, 16 January 1943, Page 4

The Dominion SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 1943. THE ISSUES OF TOMORROW

The statement made by Sir Campbell Stuart, in an interview ai Auckland, regarding the need for what he termed ‘‘an imperial understanding between Great Britain and the other members of the British Commonwealth,” is of interest in that it indicates the trend of thought among men whose lives and work have been connected with various, aspects of imperial effort. Sir Campbell is chairman of the Imperia: Communications Advisory Committee and he sees in improved communications. more direct touch, more extensive personal contact and close consultation factors that would create that better understanding on which united or co-ordinated effort could be based. Men like the late Marquis of Lothian and Mr. Lionel Curtis directed their efforts tn much the same end, and if Sir Campbell, during his visit to New Zealand, could find opportunity to enlarge on the subject, his views would be of widespread interest to the people of the Dominion. It cannot be said that, at this stage, there is any clear-cut opinion as to what course events within the Commonwealth will take after the war. Much has been heard about a new order and of the impossibility of going back to pre-war conditions, but very little has been said as to the methods by which changes are to be effected. It probably would be correct to say that there is an impression that the policies of individual States, and of the British Commonwealth, will have to be adjusted to fit into the framework of far-reaching international plans. The Governments which have signed lease-lend agreements with the United States, for instance, appear to have pledged themselves to very important adjustments of their individual fiscal policies, involving the removal, or reduction, of barriers to world trade and to the expansion “by appropriate international and domestic measures of production, employment and the exchange and consumption of goods.” The statements of the leaders of the United Nations, emphasized by President Roosevelt in his recent message to Congress, foreshadow some form of international agreement, and action, for. the preservation of peace, and people here, as probably in other British units, have concluded that any common policy of defence which they may adopt must, in turn, be related to and comply with the larger international plans to be evolved. But it is quite evident that as these big issues are approached the more fully the people of each country, especially within the Empire, are informed of the opinions and the difficulties of the others, the better it will be. There will be occasion for the exercise of mutual patience and forbearance. The Dominion, fortunately, has no racial problems to consider as have some of the other countries, and its geographical isolation frees it from those direct impacts which they must take into account, but the factors which Sir Campbell Stuart mentioned as making personal consultation possible are also tending to remove the effects —beneficial or otherwise —which our remote situation has had. Compared with 1914-18 little has been heaid, since September, 1939, of what our visitor calls the cliches —“ties that bind and that sort of thing—but fortunately the unity displayed has been impressive, and in that unity, now being tested by war, and including the much wider range of the United Nations, many people will see a basis on which the post-war State, Commonwealth and international order could be built with confidence.