WORLD CONFERENCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 256, 28 September 1932, Page 8

WORLD CONFERENCE.

INTERNATIONAL ACTION NEEDED.

Now that some measure of agreement has been reached at Ottawa, the next concern of Britain will be the world economic conference, which, according to well-informed London opinion, will not be held until after the American Presidential election in November (wrote the London correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald on August 22). There is, however, a likelihood that a preliminary meeting of experts will be arranged towards the end of September or early in October. Each Power taking part in tho Lausanne Conference was invited to send two experts to join in the all-import-ant preparatory work for the economic conference, and it wqs proposed that these should be assisted by two experts respectively from the Council of the League of Nations and the Bank for International Settlements. This meeting will be held either in Londo/i or Geneva, and may not be attended by American representatives, who have not yet been selected. The need for international instead of national action to solve world economic problems is ably discussed in an article on Britain and a New World Order, in the Westminster Bank Review. “If in August, 1932,” says the Review, “Great Britain and the world stand on the threshold of a third winter of depression without a firm guarantee of international co-operation, to ensure the return of better times, the responsibility must be imputed less to the absence of knowledge than to a paralysis of the international will. Every conference which in the last 14 years has failed to solve the issues bequeathed by the war and its economic consequences lias left on record its appreciation of eternal economic truths. Within a few months the world economic conference will meet, possibly hampered by restrictions of its sphere of action through national susceptibilities, but powerfully assisted as none of its predecessors lias been by a lively appreciation of realities, born of common danger. “The indictment of the present world order is not that it is unjust to oertain nations, but that it is ruinous to all. If the forthcoming world conference is resolutely to endeavour to build a new world order, it would appear essential that no relevant part of its field of inquiry should be barred from consideration for political or other reasons. Those upon whose shoulders has been placed the heavy responsibility of determining the future of millions of people may be asked, not merely to settle once and for all the tragic bookkeeping of the war, but to determine the foundations upon which they may build a new and better edifice. Those who now control the world’s destinies will in short be required within the next few months to choose between a separatist policy, which may cancel the material progress of the last generation, or co-operation in the achievement of a world standard of prosperity far transcending any of which the world has yet had experience. “Construction lias been more important than reconstruction. It is urgent a.nd essential that Britain should .throw wholeheartedly on the side of progress the powerful influence which her oyn present efforts and sacrifices, no less than her intrinsic wealth and her historical record, have qualified her -to exercise. BRITAIN’S DIFFICULTIES. In some political circles in London it is asserted that the decision at Ottawa involving a further restriction of world trade will make it impossible for the British Government to preach the doctrines of freer trade to other countries at a time when every nation is beginning to realise the burden of tariffs. To that degree it is suggested, Britain will find herself seriously handicapped at the world conference, and any real progress towards trade stimulation will be rendered impossThere is even some talk at Westminister of a possible crisis in the Cabinet, despite the fact that the President of the Board of Trade (Mr Runciman) appears to have given Ins full endorsement to the various agreements made with the dominions. "Whether the Liberal freetrade Ministers will accept the situation without strong protest and possible resignation is another matter. If they do so, they must at least admit that they have shed the last remnants of their political faith. It is expected that Parliament will meet earlier than previously arranged—probably about October 17 —but as far as the Ministry is concerned, the postibn should be clarified one way or another- before then.