A GLOOMY PICTURE

Evening Post, Issue 2, 2 July 1932, Page 11

A GLOOMY PICTURE

THE PAST TEN YEARS

REVIEW BY LLOYD GEORGE

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

LONDON, 13th May.

Speaking at a luncheon of the Foreign Press ' Association, in London, Mr. Lloyd George compared the present with ten years ago. He painted a

gloomy picture,

"Ten years ago!" he exclaimed, "What are the world conditions to-dayf Can anyone place his hand upon his heart and say they are any better. Economically,. financially, they are worse. Over twenty millions of unemployed. Countries which then were like a rock, reeling. A moratorium standing between maay countries, great and small. Trade restrictions, Customs barriers, quotas, exchange regulations, strangling international trade and gradually squeezing the breath of life out of its nostrils.

"As for international relations. I wonder whether they are better, whether there is real..improvement where there is not a lowering menace on. the Tiorizoix here and there. Taking the . simple test of armaments—they are bigger, niorc powerful, more.shatteringthan they were ten years ago. "There are two nations, members of the League of Nations, numbering among their people one quarter of the population of the world, engaged in deadly, conflict. A sword thrust into the side of one, of them by the other and still there; a sword aimed at its heart, territory invaded, Governments overthrown, aud everybody powerless. "Ten years of effort, ten years of handshaking, and ten'years of complete agreement at every conference that has ever been held. Wo have never seen or- heard of a conference yet that did not «nd in complete accord. (Laughter.) Complete agreement that you must have disarmament; Complete agreement that the disarmament must be by somebody else. Complete agreement that you must remove these barriers against trado. Equally complete agreement that it is somebody else who has got to do it. That is the position of the world to-day. "Ten years ago it was too soon for common senso to prevail. I wonder whether now, ten years after, it is w>, f^ + J ate'- r wonder 'more Tvnether there is enough courage in the statemenship of the world even now to propose the only.remedies that would, put the world right. It is too early to expect brotherhood. It may not come for generations, perhaps for bourhood among nations. If we are US ■»^o M> and, Wl th the plans before him, coa- *&'&?*"• the ,w aditi°Lord Inehcapo was ■ known among those who worked for and with him foivhis readiness to bestow a word of whom it was vouchsafed, from the almost boundless store of his experiT% To a aU hia Palings with men of all grades he brought an atmosphere of toleration and good feeling which became a medium by which many disputes were averted and the foundations laid of many lasting friendships.Lord Inchcape was perhaps best te *Oi °UtSid° P^e through his annual addresses to the stockholders of the P. and O. Company. These were prepared with great care, and embodied criticisms and reflections on all public questions. The matter was timely his language was vigorous and terse, and his criticism unsparing, while- all subversive influences, such aa Communism came under his castigation. At the last meeting hold early in December Lord Inchcape was unable to be proS *niiV Ttlo Hon- 4 1<'xander Shaw, one oi the deputy-chairmen, presided, and he read a characteristically vigorous speech prepared by the chairman. The absence of Lord Inchcape called forth from both sides of the table tributes of affection and admiration, such perhaps as could not have been uttered in his presence. A stockholder observed —and his remarks were cheered—that it was not merely the pronouncements from the chair which brought him to tho meetings of tho P. and 0. The personality of Lord Inchcape, he said, was tho magnet. A special message of goodwill was sent from tho meeting to Lord Inchcape. Mr. Shaw said that he had worked in close contact for many years with Lord Inchcape, and the longer the association, tho more he wondered at the broad vision- and genius for detail possessed by the chairman, this intimate knowledge extending from tho board down to the whole staff on land and afloat. Such ot tho cable news on this page as Is bo headed has appeared in "The Times" and Is cabled to Australia and New Zealand byspecial permission. It should ;bc understood that the opinions are not those ot "The limes" unless expressly stated to be so.