THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1932 THE NEED TO FACE REALITIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21345, 21 November 1932, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1932 THE NEED TO FACE REALITIES

The urgent necessity of the times is a decisive handling of realities. Everywhere, national and international affairs call for this so clearly that to miss the need or neglect the duty would seem to be practically impossible. Yet nothing is more grievously common than a reluctance to get to grips with facts. Almost anything serves as an excuse for doing as little as possible. To say that there is a worldwide epidemic of indecision would be an exaggeration, for Britain in particular and the Empire in general have done some things promptly and well. Nevertheless, a plague of this sort is prevalent. This year of grace, whatever may be achieved in its closing weeks, will be remembered, for instance, by the protracted conference on disarmament, marked no less by its studied avoidance of conclusive thinking than by its readiness to talk about obvious generalities. No matter what may be thought of Germany's action in withdrawing, justification for that can be found in the reluctance of others to deal with the issue that has become a cause of national complaint. When the basic question of reparations and war debts is considered there is met the same hesitation to come to effective action. At Lausanne, it can be encouragingly recalled, such action was taken concerning reparations, but instead of its being the first step to a beneficial readjustment of war debts it stands as yet alone and faced with the risk of ineffectiveness through failure to proceed to the steps that logically follow. A World Economic Conference was projected as a means of carrying on the work so promisingly begun at Lausanne. Preliminary inquiries, essential to its efficiency, have been undertaken, but differences of national opinion as to what should be included in its agenda threaten to retard if not to make futile its business. At this time of day, when there is abundant proof that the whole world is an economic _ 'unit, or at least that nations "are economically interdependent, the enterprise halts for lack of agreement to make full use of the opportunity it presents.

To find the secret of this international weakness is not difficult. It resides in the failure of nations to resolve their own inner disputes. In Europe,' the political chaos of Germany is hampering profitable advance elsewhere. Confidence is a prerequisite of prosperity, and instead of a growth of confidence is a prevailing fear that constructive policies may be suddenly made useless by the reckless behaviour of some national unit, at present domestically unstable. But of even greater influence as a hindering factor is the hesitation of the United States to undertake a decisive share in the international task. The President and the President-elect have at length agreed on a personal conference about war debts, and Mr. Hoover has arranged a small twoparty meeting of Republican and Democrat representatives to discuss the same subject; yet hope of real assistance from America is chastened by evidence in high places of a reluctance to face all the relevant facts. The World Economic Conference, according to earlier American pronouncements, must not discuss war debts; now it is said that, if the agenda be extended to include them, tariff revision cannot be included, although the payment of the debts to the United States may, in the opinion of Mr. Roosevelt, be dependent on such revision. This aversion to complete investigation is symptomatic of the national suspicions that have too long obstructed co-operation. France and Germany have been manifestly guilty of this sort of thing in many respects during recent years, but the United States cannot consistently indulge in stone-throwing on that account. In this experience of worldwide anxiety the constitutional system and political habits of the United States are unhelpful; wrangles between President and Congress have been complicated by partisan handlings of international questions, and the result has been a perilous playing with critical issues. In both Europe and America too much importance is still attached to traditional principles of foreign policy. Old feuds and old shibboleths are equally valueless as guides to national and international conduct now, and until they are discarded there can be little sure progress out of the present plight. A resolute facing of realities would reveal how untenable and useless these principles are. The facts make them inapplicable. Figures published to-day show that debt payments represent real values very different from those obtaining when the obligations were incurred; this surely provides one reason for revision with a view to readjustment. Another is supplied by the harmful repercussion, on creditors as well as debtors, of the payments themselves. Granted that they are debts of honour, they are in a category separate from ordinary compacts between individuals. Unless they have readjustment, the whole structure of ordinary business must fall to pieces; and mutual agreement to make the readjustment, in the interests of that ordinary business, cannot very well be foreclosed by appeal to principles that do not apply. And to dally with the subject is doing harm. It is shown by British trade figures that the regular resumption of the American debt payments would be crippling, and that the present uncertainty of relief has had a depressing effect on markets. Facts of this sort are better guides as to what ought to be done than are any abstract or conjectural considerations. They are among the realities of the situation. It is high time for the ending of uncertainty and the carrying of remedial efforts to the utmost practicable limits.