NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21515, 12 June 1933, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

JAPAN AND CHINA Professor C. K. Webster (London School of Economics) stated in a recent speech that it ought to be frankly admitted that the application ot' any sort of sanctions to Japan in respect of Manchuria was impossible, because Japan had the strategic supremacy in the Far East. It was impossible to defend China as she had a right to bo defended under the treaties, and therefore China had a right to special concessions. One of tlio great failures of the League of Nations had been its attitude to China since the war. Its duty was to lend her money and, if necessary, soldiers and sailors, and to help her to put her house in order. He predicted that before she had dono so Japan would also be taking part in the work, and then would be the time to ask Japan to reconsider her attitude toward the recommendations of the Lytton Commission. NEARER TO BARTER "Tho world as a whole," says the Times, "has moved nearer to barter, and our own commercial system is being brought into relation with that fact. It is not a very desirable development, even though in connection with somo # countries, and notably with Russia, experience has shown that it is inevitable. But with most countries it may bo hoped that a system of closer regard to tho balance of trade will not prove inconsistent with an expansion of the volume of trade nor with a restoration of an extensive use of the credit system. Tho obstacles in the way are the interlocked problems of international debts, excessive tariffs, exchange restrictions, prohibitions, and all the armoury of weapons which countries have been driven to nse or have chosen to use in an effort to make themselves self-supporting and to dam themselves off from the rest of a troubled world. These arc the problems with which the World Economic Conference will ho called upon to deal. It seems likely to find the world at a fork in the road where one branch leads to common-sense agreements on currency, debts, and tariffs, and where the other branch leads to a race in currency depreciation, probably coupled with mounting tariffs. There can bo no doubt that tho whole influence of Britain will be exerted to take, and to induce others to take, the wiser course, and there is equally no doubt that the taking of this course would be as helpful as tho taking of the other course would be fatal to tiie prospect of a return of prosperity." POWER OF FASHION In a lecture on "Tho Power of Fashion" before the It oval Society of Arts, Mr. Edward H. Syrnonds said the people who pulled a the wires of fashion were tho women themselves. It was useless for anybody in Paris, London or New York to suggest that they could force women to wear what they chose for them. All the fashion creators could do was to use their art in tho production of something which they thought and hoped would be beautiful and acceptable. It was then left to women' themselves to decide whether or not they would accept what was produced. If they did not, it fell to the ground. Change was assuming a greater rapidity, and, if it did not continue to gain momentum, the unemployment problem throughout the world would become intensified. Changes of fashion in every conceivable form wero necessary to keep pace with tho tremendous increase in production brought about by labour-saving machinery, and other devices. "I look upon the women who are frequently buying new materials, new dresses or new hats, the men and women who buy now motor-cars every year, the householders who keep their homes in good repair, those who spend money upon enjoynien,t and entertainment, and so forth, as more useful citizens,and of greater national value, and of more genuine help in finding work for tho unemployed, than those members of tho community who follow the policy of super-economy which has been made so fashionable." " COMMERCIAL LIBERTY " "We have already passed the stage when we have started to neglect trade," states the report of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce. "It is being made the cat's-paw in the game of national ambition. So long as we persist in avoiding to reinstate it in the dominant position which it should hold as the productive source of wealth, by so much nearer do wo conic to allowing social order to become endangered. The whole basis of international relationship is resting on a fabric of complete and inseeuro artificiality. Trade, such as it is, is being cajoled to run, and then only with difficulty, through constricted channels, while the credit of many nations is bolstered up by tho most transparent subterfuges. Almost every nation totters on tho brink of tho chasm of insolvency, with budgets heaping ever-increasing burdens on the shoulders of taxpayers, depleting capital resources, stilling initiative and enterprise. Every effort of the nationals of one country to trade with those of another is thwarted." Referring to the World Economic Conference, the report states that this will probably constitute the most portentous conference since the meeting at Versailles 11 years ago. "Whatever sacrifices or recantations it may call for," adds the report, ,"it is imperative that it shall not fail, and, what is more, that it should be the starting point of similar meetings until the world is brought back to the enjoyment of commercial and social liberty."