NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21782, 23 April 1934, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

SHIPPING SUBSIDIES Lord Runciman strongly opposed subsidies for shipping, declaring that they would further depress freights, when he presided at the annual meeting of the North of England Shipowners' Association. "Last year at this time," ho said, "I thought that we were going to get better freights in the Far and Near East. It looked like it, but all the subsidised countries began to pour their tonnage on the market. As soon as the merchants saw that they were getting more than the tonnage they wanted, down came the freights, and they have been dropping ever since." He had heard that shipowners in Germany, Italy and France, who obtained subsidies, were losing money. "The Government is most anxious to do all they can to assist the great national industry of shipbuilding," he continued. "They have to consider the taxpayer, who could not live without shipping. We can work ourselves, without any assistance. Let us realise that a great deal of trouble has been brought about by ourselves, in going in for too much tonnage. Keep your spirits up and depend on it, you will work out all right. Do not depend on Governments or anybody else."

BRITAIN AND DOMINIONS Agreement may be expressed with the contention of a correspondent, states the Times in an article upon the problems of trade, that no remedies can be applied with any effect until both Great Britain and the Dominions have a much clearer idea than at present of the objects of their economic policy. The latter, it is truo, by their declarations at Ottawa haye already recognised thi necessity of exercising some discrimination in the encouragement of uneconomic industries, but that recognition has still to find sufficient expression in their tariff schedules. What kind of a balance does this country for its part desire to strike between the necessity of re-establishing the prosperity of the British countryside, with all that this means in strengthening the home market for British industries, and the need on the other hand to keep down the cost of food, in order to keep down in turn the cost Qf manufacturing production and thus to assist the export trader to secure markets abroad? Much valuable work has been accomplished during the past two years, in reconditioning British agriculture; but a clearer determination of objectives is required if progress is to be continuous along permanent lines. FRIENDLY SYMBOL Under the heading "Of the Same House," the Morning Post has the following article:—-America has carried off several choice examples of English mediaeval building, sending oak beams and mellow.bricks, carefully numbered, across the Atlantic, and resurrecting the old houses to gaze blankly at an unrecognisable landscape. If other countries. desire, such memorials of England,. New Zealand's way is better. On the heights above Christchurch unemployed men have reproduced—"with extraordinary success," it is said —one of those solid timbered dwellings which our forefathers were creating about the time that Polynesian canoeists found the shores of South Island. Whether this task of the unemployed—supervised by a former Minister of the Crown, who is an authority on mediaeval architecture—could be hailed as a productive relief scheme is open to dispute; 1 but decidedly the Old Country appreciates the compliment. Of all peoples united under King George, none' feels warmer kinship with England than the New Zealander, and none more gladly seizes the chance of visiting the other island still spoken of with affection as "home." But even in days when the world is, shrinking, the journey remains too formidable for the majority to achieve it; and if this house on the hill with the Tudor archways and great fireplaces' vouchsafes a pleasurable glimpse of the England of yesterday, people here rejoice that it has been raised and hope it may endure as a friendly symbol. IMPERIAL DEFENCE An editorial article in the Times on defence concludes as follows: —On the whole, the machinery for organising national defence, which has been gradually evolved since 1904, seems at tho moment still to be the best which human ingenuity can invent. The Committee of Imperial Defence consists of the Prime Minister and of such other members as, having regard to the nature of the subject to be discussed, he may from time to time summon to assist him. Tho committee works therefore normally through ad hoc sub-committees; but the changes made since 1923 mean that the committee has the' power to initiate questions of policy, even though decision is, as before, reserved to the Government as a whole. Tho same machinery is used, and was intended to be used, for considering questions of Imperial as distinct from national defence. Statesmen from the Dominions may be, and often have been, members summoned to serve on the committee. But it may be doubted whether in fact this arrangement has resulted in the proper co-ordination of Imperial defence. There has been no full review of the many questions involved since tho report of the Imperial Conference of 1926, though the Committee of Imperial Defence has since that date been in touch with several Dominions, at their own request, and has tendered to them detailed advice. At that time it was recognised that the scattered units of the Empire had a common interest in concerting measures of common defence, that the training and organisation of forces in all parts of the Empire should proceed on the same lines; moreover, Mr. Bruce, who is now the authoritative representative of Australia in this country, declared that equality of status carried with it "some responsibility to share the common burden of defence." General principles of such wide importance and so universally _ accepted seem to demand more definite translation into practice than sporadic efforts such as the creation of an Imperial Defence College, the acceleration of work on the Singapore base, the strengthening of Dominion air forces, or the settlement to which sanction was given in the House of Commons this week between the two parties concerned of the cost of the British Army in India. There is room —and before the end of the year there may well be a favourable opportunity—for appointing a special subcommittee of the Committee of Imperial Defence upon which authoritative representatives of all the Dominions could serve without inconvenience to themselves and to the enormous advantage of the whole Empire.