WORLD RECOVERY

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 June 1932, Page 7

WORLD RECOVERY

CHANCELLOR OPTIMISTIC LAUSANNE AS TURNING POINT [official wireless.] RUGBY, June 10. Mr Neville Chamberlain made an important speech on the third reading of the Finance Bill, which passed the Commons by 409 votes- to 34. The difficultines at present being encountered, he said, were common to every country, and were not going.

to be solved in any Finance Bill introduced in this country alone. Cooperation between nations was. necessary, and indeed the only way in which a solution of the prevailing problems

could ultimately be found. Referring to the debt charges, and the prospects of undertaking a conversion operation, he said that when the Government considered circumstances favourable it would act promptly. Dealing with the general outlook, he said that some feeling of uneasi-

ness, which did not -seem to be well founded, had arisen. He deprecated both breezy optimism and undue pessimism. He hoped the Commons would keep a balanced judgment. It was futile to base any estimate from the income revenue and the surtax, on the figures of April and May, or base any calculations for the whole year upon what happened in the first two months, but he saw no reason to expect there would be any appreci- 5 able short fall in the yield of inland revenue, including stamp and death duties, as well as income tax and sur 7

tax. They had no experience to make any reliable calculation of the yield of import duties. Any estimate must to a large extent be conjectural. The latest figures of unemployment were to some extent disappointing, but were affected by the Whitsuntide holiday.

The next figures might -show a very different aspect of the situation. Comparing the existing situation with that prevailing before the first National Government took office, he said that they got to a position at which confidence had been restored in the eyes of the British people, and in those of the world. It had come about to an almost embarrassing extent. The figures of unemployment which had been rising in 1929 and 1930, had been checked. The stock exchange price of the 31 pei- cent conversion loan last August stood at £77iths, and to-day at £BB. If Britain’s position were compared with that of other countries, there was a good deal of ground for encouragement. The trend of trade during the January-April period, as compared with the corresponding period of 1931, showed the percentage of fall in imports in the United Kingdom was 12 per cent., but the United States had suffered a fall of 30 per cent., France 35 per cent., and Germany 36 per cent. French exports had fallen by 38 per cent., those of the United States and Germany by 36 per cent each, while the exports of the United Kingdom

had fallen only about 7 per cent in volume. The percentage of fall in imports to the United Kingdom in the past three months of the current yeai’ was nil, whereas in the United States it was 4 per cent, and Germany 12 per cent. With regard to the fall in volume of exports, Germany had suL fered 21 per cent., United States 16 per cent, and Britain less x than one per cent. Had it not been for coal, they would have shown an increase. The export of manufactured goods for the first quarter was higher than in the first quarter last year. It was true that while Britain Was getting the largest share of it, world trade as a whole, was continually diminishing, illustrating the fact that no single country could prosper, when the rest of the world was depressed, but the fact that world depression had been widening and deepening, had brought home to every people the added sense of the realities of the situation. “In mj r view, there is to-day in Europe a greater approach to unanimity, as to the cause of troubles and the steps necessary to solve the problems, than any time since' the war. Next week, we enter upon a conference at which an earnest endeavour will be made to reach an agreement with countries directly concerned in the solution of these difficulties, and I feel hopeful about the result. Lausanne may prove to be a turning point in the history of Europe in these difficult days.” GOVT. ACHIEVEMENTS. ' Mr. Chamberlain said he did not accept the view that if these hopes were disappointed, further taxation was inevitable, or that the end of the possibilities of a reduction of national expenditure had been reached. The main items of expenditure of the size that would warrant a belief that substantial reductions could be made, however, involved matters of vital importance to either the safety of the country or the standards of living, but if the Government felt changes regarding them were necessary, they would not flinch from telling the House and the country. On the whole, they had no cause for pessimism. On the --contrary, he believed it was necessary to carefully watch the situation and lose no opportunity of reducing national expenditure where it could property be done. The Government' had already taken a measure which had prepared a way for rapid advance so soon as the general conditions became favourable. The} 7 had taken measures through the monetary policj' to set the stage for that rise in wholesale prices, which all desirpd. They had held the pound reasonably steady at a level not inconvenient to industry, and had enacted in this Finance Bill the measures designed to avoid speculative fluctuations in the future value of sterling. They

had instituted a system of tariffs on a scientific basis; they had entered upon an era of cheap and plentiful money; they had seen ideas on monetary policy in tho United States running paralled with their own, and might therefore, especially ‘in view of conferences at Lausanne and’ Ottawa, and possibly later in London, think that the series of opportunities would enable them to contemplate the future with cool heads, and with cautious, but reasoned optimism.

Tho Prime Minister, who is leaving ’or Paris and Lausanne, to-morrow, Irove co Buckingham Palace, this evening, at tho conclusion of the Irish conference, and had an audience with the King.

WAR DEBTS CANCELLATION. [BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] » LONDON, June 10. While Mr. R. MacDonald’s meeting with M. Herriot, when en route to' Switzerland, is everywhere welcomed, there is still little sign that permanent agreement at the Lausanne Conference on the Reparations is possible, according to the “Daily Telegraph.” Official circles in London, the paper says, expect the procedure to be somewhat as follows:—Germany will -declare her inability ever to resume the payments. France will not accept this position. The immediate result will be an extension of the moratorium, until the end of the year, the appointment of committees, and an adjournment. Then will come the holding of a World Economic Conference at London in October, when there will be a similar appointment pf technical committees, followed by an adjournment during the American .elections in November. The World Conference will then emerge as a Plenary Conference, when the American policy is re-stated. The London and Lausanne Conferences, in light thereof, will enter on their final stages at the end of the year, in an attempt to reach a decision. It is understood that with the advent of M. Herriot, the French attitude has undergone a modification. It is believed that the new French Government might even consent to the cancellation of the Allied war debts, or that Britain may agi;eo to join France, Italy, Belgium and the others concerned by serving notice on America of their inability to pay the debts, since they themselves are receiving no more payments from Germany. It is reported from Berlin that Chancellor Von Papen himself has decided to go to the Lausanne Conference, and that he is leaving on Tuesday - .

BRITAIN’S DEBT TO U.S.A. [BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.] RUGBY, June 7. In the House. of Commons, Major Elliott (Financial Secretary to the Treasury) was asked what amount included in Britain’s war debt to the United States was represented by the guarantees that were given by Britain for material supplied direct to France on French account during the war. He replied that the British war debt to the United States contained no specific item of the kind referred to. The position was that, if Britain had not had any calls for assistance from her Allies, it would have been unnecessary for her to have asked for assistance from the United States Government.