ECONOMIC CONFERENCE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 12 May 1927, Page 7

ECONOMIC CONFERENCE.

COMMITTEES SET TO WORK. BY CABLE PRESS ASSOCIATION—COI'YBIGHT. GENEVA, May 10. The Economic Conference is now subdivided into committees, the most important of which at present, is that dealing with commerce, wherein France has moved a motion that the supply oi raw materials be not subject to restrictions, differential export conditions, or preferential duties designed to excessively burden the foreign user, or to keep up price when a free market and general distribution tend to reduce price, and that free market and general tariffs be altered only at long intervals with sufficiently long notice to avoid the sudden dislocation of business.

The Australians and New Zealand ers are not participating in the debates

A DIFFICULT TASK

The general work of the Economic •Conference was surveyed in the closing speech of M. Theunis (Belgium), chairman of the Preliminary Committee which prepared the agenda. Emphasising the difficult- task before the committee in discharging the trust laid upon it by the Council of the League of Nations, and the extent and number of the problems raised l by the existing disequilibrium, of the world, 51. Theunis declared that the- political work of pacification undertaken by the League of Nations would not I>e comprehensive without simultaneous work in the economic field —a field which was closely connected with it. The work of political peace and disarmament should go hand in Band with economic peace and disarmament. Economic progress had not only material importance, hut also a- moral value. It made possible the development of the people towards more ‘inimane considerations. Work was a duty of mankind,, but it should also be its joy, whether the work was intellectual or manual. The situation, moreover, added one further element to the undeniable interdependence’of peoples.

“The industrialists and the farmer complain of the increased cost of production. and of their inability to recoup themselves in their sale price,” said M. Theunis. “The trader complains of the difficulties of all kinds which he encounters in transporting his goods and. in bringing them on to the markets where they should normally be sold. All complain of the financial difficulties of all kinds and of the unstable condition, of the exchanges which makes them all willynilly speculators. “The consumer, finally, who represents the great mass, complains about all. these difficulties, which in hisi case result in what is known as the high cost of living. It is to all these that we have to address ourselves un.tiringlv, in order to persuade them that there is something .to lie' done to alleviate their troubles.

“Am important re-sn.lt would: lie obtained if we succeeded in convincing these people that, a mart from remedies which can be applied by private initiative, and apart from the initiative of national Governments, something should and can be attempted. This international work is of capital • importance. because the organisation of the modern world 1 is sneh that the measures, taken by Governments are inadequate unless they are amplified and supplemented l by international coolie rati on. “That international co-operation Will alone living a remedy to the economic anarchy in which we live., and which, if we allow it to develop, can onl v lead to the worst possible results.

“Tf flic propaganda of which T have ii'.st outlined one of the forms reaches the various circles which are. if T may sr» (ho or dm it. to ho converted, then wo 'fill look forward te very good results. Tf. boro, there and everywhere, we deve'on. a. public opinion favourable I'v international co-operation. tbeGovorv.rnents concerned -will he obliged to tal-o n<->o o nn f of that fact “'H-ov will foci themselves supported and encouraged. and conseooontlv sufficierit.lv st-ron"- to thrust aside, if "omtWMT, ro.-f ■'■‘n n-ii'nl" internets. ioto’.psts noesihlv ill-un do "stood liv the parties them-s c dves. and- therefore t.*>pr will lie ill o l-ette- position effectively to annlv the i-ecnlut'.o.ns and to qnl t- ftio vo-ivo/liVs a lid imi'o|.<v , '»nien+:S whi-h iv <ll he t.o,r.«„,tiioivloj hv the forth"oming economic conference. ’ ’