A POST WAR POOL

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 75, 25 September 1941, Page 8

A POST WAR POOL

The principle of a post-war international pool of the necessaries of life was approved at a meeting in London of representatives of all the Allies. Prior to the war, all countries pooled their commodities through the mechanism of markets, ill which mechanism price and tariff (or embargo) were important factors. If not prevented by em-j bar-go or other prohibitive device, anyone in any country could buy any commodity if he was prepared to pay the price. And, in spite of all limitations of price and purchasing power, the pre-war pool functioned. But war has destroyed much of that. When peace comes, supplies of commodities, and transport thereof, will not readily be procurable, nor will the purchasing power be always present. A postwar pool therefore will have to be based on a system of credits, and Governments will have to take action in an international spirit. The supplying of liberated peoples and other peoples cannot be left to the ! ordinary markets mechanism which has been upset by the war, and which for a time will lack supplies and the [means of organising and transportjing them. So the adoption of the principle of a post-war international pool is vitally important. The difficulties, of course, are enormous, but must be faced in the spirit in which war difficulties are now being faced and overcome.