WORLD AFFAIRS

Evening Star, Issue 21642, 10 February 1934, Page 11

WORLD AFFAIRS

IHTERESTINC TALK BY EXPERT [Per United Press Association.] HAWERA, February 9. The importance of close Empire, links and the trend of world affairs in relation to Great Britain were outlined in a public address to-day by Sir John Sanderman Allen, chairman of the Commerce Committee of the House of Commons, who spoke at the invitation of the New Zealand Master Grocers’ Federation, whose annual conference is in progress. Sir John also referred to the war debt question, the situation in Russia, and the possibility of a Japanese menace in the Pacific. The conference affirmed its loyalty to the King and Empire, and gave a pledge to give preference to Empire goods. Concerning the war debts, Sir John said that the attitude towards'America should be that she had treated gold in such a w r ay that she could not be paid in gold. He suggested that Britain should pay America in goods and services. There Was a very strong feeling in England that it would be necessary to go further and say that the debts were incurred for goods bought at ridiculous prices as guarantees for other nations, and also that they were incurred long before America came into the war.

, Sir John said that ho did not think that New-Zealand and Australia had anything'to fear from a Japanese menace in the Pacific. In Japan, the whole aim was the expansion of trade. The Japanese knew that a war with America or a war in which England was brought in would smash them in trade. “They would not mind a war with Russia, and many of us would not mind if they did quarrel,’?-he said. To-day, Governments Were realising that the lifeblood of a .nation was trade, and Japan had that idea better than anyone else, .