NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21769, 7 April 1934, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

THE CITY OF LONDON Changes that could be seen in the City of London, and others likely in the future were discussed recently by Mr. Colin Brooks in an address to students of accountancy. A few years ago, he said, he was of the belief that national tendencies would cause the London markets to increase in importance. Not only were national transport and national communications * bringing the provincial ports and producing centres nearer to London, but the same factors were operating in the international field. But since 1931 the whole economic philosophy of the State had changed. Old-fashioned exchanges depended upon free markets. Even the more modern exchanges depended upon the control of selling and the fixing of prices by their own personnel. To-day production and distribution were tending to become rationed by powers outside the market itself. Even more potent, perhaps, was the technique of direct selling. The salesman went out more freely to the customer than in earlier years, and the necessity for the customer to come to a daily or weekly saleroom or stock room —which was what an exchange really was —was diminishing. It might even be, though not in our lifetime, that those very useful functionaries, the broker and the factor, would be eliminated, and centralised operations, either through cartels or central boards, would control the whole cus-tomer-supplier relationship. Individual contract would go and some Joseph in a bureau would ration the community—to his own mind an unpleasing prospect. TENDENCIES IN FRANCE

Causes underlying the difficulties and unrest at present displayed in Franco wero discussed in a recent article by the Paris correspondent of tho Times. The chief criticism levelled against the Republic, he wrote, is that there has been a complete decay of authority. Warnings have been uttered for a long time past. M. Tardieu recently published a study of the decay of Parliamentary institutions in France, in which he traced the causes back to the power of initiative in matters of expenditure enjoyed by Deputies, and the effects down to the point of actual corruption. The Chamber is too strong. The Government is too weak. Pressure on the Deputy begins from the moment when he stands as a candidate. He becomes the delegate of a party which expresses its views through committees. Before he is even elected he is required to make promises, and these promises almost invariably envisage a share in the Budget expenditure. It is recognised that he will have the right to initiate expenditure, and his promises can therefore be made more tangible than election promises usually are. It has been calculated that during the last Legislature—a period of four years— Deputies introduced bills which, had they all been adopted, would have involved the expenditure of 10,000,000,000 francs. In a single Budget 12.000,000,000 francs out of a total expenditure of 50,000,000,000 francs (nearly one-quar-ter) was for indemnities, subventions, allocations, premiums. A Minister could only remark with feeling: "The Budget is open for pillage!" PRIMITIVE MAN Lecturing at the Royal Institution recently, Professor G. Elliot-Smith said the evidence now available suggested that primitive man was ethically exemplary, peaceful, honest and truthful, and well-disposed to his fellow-men. The scientific demonstration of these high ethical qualities, he said, should be fatal to the widespread conception of human nature as jealous and quarrelsome, and should provide a truthful foundation for the assessment of social factors that make for peace or war, for social unrest or equanimity. The creation of civilisation put an end to much of this Arcadian perfection, not merely by giving a spurious value to things to inspire envy and to squabble over, but also by developing causes of dispute and inventing the weapons to pursue such conflicts as they provoked. In particular the invention of the artificial value of gold created a disturbing factor, which after 60 centuries of conflict was still as disruptive as ever. The development of pseudo-scientific speculations concerning life-giving was responsible for many crude religious practices and rituals which gave a sanction to head-hunting, cannibalism, and other monstrosities of behaviour, which was responsible for untold cruelty and consequent unrest. It was important to recognise that instead of bringing enlightenment and appeasement civilisation was responsible for most of the cruelties and barbarities. With the invention of agriculture and irrigation civilisation was born, and it gave an immense impetus to the wanderings of men, to whom it provided objects to search for, and better methods of travelling by sea and land, and gold, pearls, and precious metals and stones to seek. TASK OF THE DIPLOMAT The retirement of Lord Tyrrell from the post of British Ambassador in Paris, announced a few weeks ago, was responsible for the discussion in a London paper of the duties and responsibilities attaching to such a post. The demands upon an Ambassador of a great. Power in a big European capital, it was stated, have greatly increased with the advent of tho new diplomacy, tho preparation for the recurring conferences having added to the duties very considerably, while tho state of Europe and the repercussions of the events of one country upon another have rendered constant vigilance over a widening field essential to the conduct of any international negotiations. Even with Lord Tyrrell's keen discrimination between what is urgent and what is important—on which diplomacy is often said to break down—the burden had become very heavy. If asked what had been the guiding principle of his mission, Lord Tyrrell would probably reply that it was the maintenance of co-operation between tho two countries in the tasks presented by post-war Europe. The mission of an Ambassador is primarily to carry out the instructions of his Government and to provide the necessary link between it and the country to which he is accredited, but in tho process the personal element counts for a great deal. Lord Tyrrell had tho goodwill of the French from the beginning. The path was lightened by tho fact that he know-'France and French political thought very well already, and perhaps in part because it was recognised that he also knew Germany and Gorman political thought at least equally well A French view of him as a negotiator laid stress on his capacity for seeing and presenting the case for the other side, which proved an invaluable factor in the promotion of a policy in common.