THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1933 A GOOD BEGINNING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21520, 17 June 1933, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1933 A GOOD BEGINNING

It is possible, at tho close the first plenary session of the World Economic Conference, to get an idea of its chances of success. A good beginning is already to its credit—a surprisingly good beginning, it may be said, for at the outset theie was little promise of any early achievement worth chronicling. Little faith can be reposed, as a rule, in large assemblies of the kind, and this is the largest on record. Their very size is a barrier to agreement and executive capacity. "The best committee," once said a famous divine, "is a committee of two —with the other fellow out of the way. That accords with experience, even if it may seem extravagant. The larger and more representative the body, especially if it should happen to include spokesmen for many nations, the smaller the prospect of real work. At Geneva, where the intellectual and political atmosphere appears to aid chest expansion, long and fretful speeches are common, and the multi-membered Disarmament Conference has had obstiuctcd progress by reason, partlj, of the nomadic liberties exercised in the airing of national necessities and policies. Week after week 'was spent in talking round the great subject, and even a dividing into commissions proved so ineffectual a safeguard of business that a special bureau, composed of a handful of delegates, had to be appointed to keep the conference alive. At London, with a delegates' roll even longer and a task wider in scope b\ far, is a peril as great of the stream's losing itself in the sands of futility. There, too, must he sectional groupings for technical examination of many a difficult problem, and it may yet be that some things must be left unsettled. It would be foolish to forget the danger of final disagreement on some remedial proposals. Another wonder of the world would be created if a complete cure for its economic ills were propounded and endorsed before the rising of the conference. But in its speedy settling to business, its scant list of speechmakers eager to be heard immediately, and the pithy utterances of (liose using the privilege, it has given an earnest of good work.

One apparent obstacle to progress has been happily turned into a stepping-stone —the awkward question of war debts. Had it not been so used it might have tripped up the conference at any moment in the course of some vital discussion. Thanks to Mr. Mac Donald's thrusting it into notice, and Mr. Roosevelt's acceptance of the wise proposal of the British Government, it becomes an aid to international agreement about much else. In the good beginning of the conference this Anglo-American achievement has to be reckoned as a helpful factor. Perhaps, in the process of its handling necessarily outside the conference —an unforeseen good came. At Washington's insistence, it was banned frorn the agenda; there was an evident American intention to keep it altogether apart from the discussions. Mr. Cordell Hull, as Secretary of State, was doubtless instructed to frame his initial speech on lines indicative of this intention, and he had at his elbow the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate, a body particularly watchful against the Administration's assertion of a right to negotiate with freedom on such an issue. Had Mr. Hull spoken thus —and the reported resentment of the American delegates at Mr. Mac Donald's injection of this question suggests their determination to support the Secretary of State in his attitude the good beginning would have been marred. As it was, there was serious tension ; the knowledge that the two Governments were at close grips aroused keen, anxiety ; and only the excellent news of their agreement allayed the fears—and gave a lead in amity concerning other To enjoy such an accession of the right spirit was worth more than can ever be estimated. War debts have been excluded—at least in their thorny aspect —not by the intended ban but by a tentative settlement leaving the conference little necessity to mention them.

This happy cancelling of a threshold danger, and incidentally the resultant uplift of courage about the future, have done much. In the practical turn of the speeches at the plenary session is a further encouragement to expect considerable success. Even the general preference to give strength to commit-tee-work can be interpreted as a good sign. Hardly a note of grievance has been struck, all recitals of hardship being expressed. Contributions of positive suggestion have been significantly free of aggressiveness. Most notable of these has been the expounding of the British Government's considered policy by Mr. Neville Chamberlain. He has not only analysed the situation with the helpful clarity of speech for which he is becoming rioted but has outlined methods of fostering trade revival that are soberly conceived. No swiftly radical introduction of new measures has been advocated. Instead, hope is seen in a progress of mutual aid that seeks the resumption of normal conditions by the use of what hitherto has been proved of value. As the items of the policy are scanned they reveal a determination not to be stampeded into reckless experiment. If this policy be followed, there will be no premature return to the gold standard by the many countries that have abandoned it, no immediate abolition of means proved necessary to guard national interests in trade, no sudden, universal merging of commercial systems, instead, a carefully graduated removal of restrictions is envisaged. The reception given to the British monetary proposals has the promise of a similarly sober approach to all questions. Mr. Cordell Hull voices the confidence of many when lie expresses himself as more than hopeful of success because of the businesslike beginning.