THE FIRST JOB

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 147, 7 June 1932, Page 7

THE FIRST JOB

FINISH WAR DEBTS NIGHTMARE OVER WORLD APPROACHING CONFERENCES. BRITISH HOPES. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 7, 12.30 p.m.) Rugby, June 6. References to the work of some of the, approaching conferences was made during week-end speeches by the Rt. Hon. J. H. Thomas and Lord Hailsham Mr Thomas said that no country was so fundamentally financially sound as Great Britain and that no nation was better prepared or more ready to give a real lead to the ultimate restoration of world prosperity. Confidence must be restored, he said, and their first job was to get rid for all time of war debts and reparations, that were hanging like a nightmare over the world. Regarding Ottawa, he expressed the hope that they would succeed in laying the foundations for permanent machinery enabling all! members of the Empire to contribute to the solution of their common problems. Fresh tariff barriers were not going to solve world problems.

War debts, reparations and suspensions were all contributing difficulties, but so was the blind, mad folly of each nation building tariff waas one against another.

Britain had changed her fiscal policy, not because* she wanted high tariff walls but because she was going to use the tariff not as a menace to the rest of the world but as a lever to reduce the tariffs of the world. In regard to disarmament, Lord Hailsham said that Britain had already set an example by reducing its armed forces to a mere fraction of what they were before the. war and that the army had become little more than an Imperial! police force. PREPARING FOR LAUSANNE. (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, June 6. (Received 7, 12.30 p.m.) Arrangements lor the Lausanne Con ference, which is due to open next week, will engage the close attention of the Prime Minister during the next few days. Other Ministers will also be devoting increased attention to the work of the Disarmament Conference at Geneva and to the Lausanne and Ottawa Conferences. Meanwhile, reports of the governments whose views have been sought regarding the pro posed world economic conference are awaited. Some days will probably elapse before any further advance can be made in regard to it.