NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 1932. OTTAWA PRONOUNCEMENT

Northern Advocate, 12 August 1932, Page 4

NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY

FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 1932. OTTAWA PRONOUNCEMENT

Registered for Transmission Through the Post as a. Newspaper

The world in general, and the British Empire in particular, have been wailing anxiously for the Ottawa Conference to make a pronouncement Upon the best means by which the universal depression may be lifted. A Monetary Sub-Committee was appointed to investigate this question. The committee’s report, an epitome of which was published ,in the “Northern Advocate” yesterday, has been presented to the Conference and adopted by the Main -Committee. To. those who were expecting the sub-commit-tee to discover something in the

• ' .V . V. . : I . : : o nature of Aladdin’s Lamp, the rubbing of which would disperse the world’s troubles, the report, will bo disappointing. There can be little doubt, however, that the expressed opinion of the British Empire regarding the monetaryproblem will exercise a verysalutary effect upon all the nations, espeeiallj 7 those who are in a position to co-operate along the lines suggested in the report. The committee voices a platitude when it expresses the opinion that it is desirable to raise the general level of wholesale prices; that is the all-important need of the world at the present time. The best way in which this can be done, it says, is by the raising of gold prices, but this can only be effected by international action, This is a general indication of world policy, but the committee urges , that the British Commonwealth should begin to set its own house in order by adopting sound methods for the raising of price levels. This should take the form of low interest rates and n plentiful supply of short-term money, not for the purpose of financing public "expenditure, but

for stimulating industry and reviving confidence. It is emphasised that there should be an international standard of monetary value, and that the stability of international exchanges can best be obtained by some metallic base to currency. Some of the experts on the sub-committee believe that gold is the only sound base, but the report refrains from express-1 ing an opinion on this subject in view of the fact that a World Economic Conference is to be held towards the end of the year. The sub-c6ramittce likewise refrains from proposing any machinery for the stabilisation of exchange between the various countries, this also being a matter which should be discussed at the World Conference. It has been apparent from the outset that the Ottawa Conference could go no further than it has gone in this matter in the face of opinion frequently expressed by the Empire’s leaders that international

action alone can evolve the world’s economic problems. At the same time, it was necessary,, that the Empire should let the world know that it, at any rate, is anxious,, and able, to improve its own economic position. The details of the plan approved by Ottawa have yet to be published, but it is good to learn, on the authority of a cable message published today, that the British delegates are convinced that the present agreed statement will have an immense psychological effect. Jt.is. believed that the publication of the full report will immediately improve prices all

vonnd an cl that Stock markets will instantly respond. This suggests that very definite proposals may be expected. Tl is to be hoped that these expectations will be realised. The Monetary Subcommittee of the Ottawa Conference has doubtless been infiueneed by the same train of thought as that 'which led the Prince of Wales, when addressing the British- delegates prior to their departure from London, to say that “The Empire cannot, it is true, solve the world’s problems, but it can perhaps give a lead in the right direction, and in our present. distresses a feeling that a right first step bad boon taken might do much to revive confid-

ence. If in this way an upward movement in . wholesale prices could be started, the benefit to producers all over the Empire would be far greater than any that could follow measures conceived jn a more exclusive spirit. “While it may lie disputed whether, as is held by some authorities of the greatest, weight, the growing tariffs which marked the post-Avar epoch ha\’e also a measure of responsibility for the| onset of the depression, there'can

be no doubt that its later stages have been made move acute by an outbreak of trade restrictions of; every kind, of which tariffs arc now a comparatively mild form, so severe as to threaten nothing less than the strangulation of world trade. These restrictions may well appear necessary to a country anxious for it's balance of trade or for the stability of its currency; but when its neighbours follow suit, the good results are. lost, and only the evil remains.” Britain has undoubtedly given the nations a lead, which, if followed at the World Economic Conference, cannot but lie productive of lasting benefit to the people in every quarter of the globe. In the words of the Prince of Wales, “The drying up of the channels of trade through the depression has done something to show up in the clearest relief the economic structure of the world, and it has never before been so clear that no country or group of countries in the world can isolate themselves from the fortunes of the rest. However widely the group is conceived, it would lack, by its isolation from the rest of the world, something vital to its economic life.”