THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 1937 PROBLEM OF RAW MATERIALS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22695, 6 April 1937, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 1937 PROBLEM OF RAW MATERIALS

The idea that an unfair inequality of access to raw materials is one of the root causes of the present international unrest is widespread. This does not prove its truth, but it makes necessary an inquiry into its value, as a preliminary to practical measures for the removal of any injustice that may be found to exist. A realisation of this necessity prompted the League Council to appoint a Committee for the Study of the Problem of Raw Materials, which had its first meeting, in Geneva, about four weeks ago. The official report of that meeting is now available, supplied by the League Secretariat. It makes a definite contribution to the subject, although only an initial discussion could be conducted. At the conclusion of this, three subcommittees were established. One was commissioned to furnish statistical data required as a basis for final judgment; another was instructed to examine existing legislation in countries producing raw materials and to investigate other factors that might have an influence on commercial access to such materials; and the third was given the task of ascertaining why certain countries, as consumers and importers of raw materials, were not in a position to make use of existing possibilities of obtaining the supplies they needed. It must be evident from this approach to the subject that the general discussion, although only preliminary, had laid bare many important facts, corrective of the prevalent belief that the question is one to be settled by the supposedly simple expedient of transferring certain colonial territories from one country to another. Indeed, the considered statements made in the course of the discussion showed that views popularly held and often glibly expressed are fallacious. And the force of these statements was increased by the manifest eagerness, on the part of all present, to see every actual injustice removed.

Notwithstanding the political atmosphere in which the question has been raised, first by Italy in the early stages of the quarrel with Abyssinia and afterwards by Germany in reiterating a national demand for the return of the lost colonies, the members of the committee preserved a usefully judicial attitude. Each member is an economist of repute. All the leading nations of the world, and some not so prominent, had been invited to nominate a technical expert, and they all, except Germany and Italy, had welcomed the request and complied with it. Apart from these significant gaps, there was only one absentee —the French member, unable to attend. Thus the meeting was sufficiently well constituted, with its fourteen national representatives and a fifteenth representing the International Labour Office, to attack the problem from all angles. Formally opening the session, the Secretary-General of the League indicated that, without departing from its technical functions, the work of the committee might form the first stage in a return to the economic co-operation that began with the opening of the London Economic Conference. This can well be believed, for whatever the findings of the committee it is a conspicuous purpose of the whole membership to deal frankly with realities.

Some differences of opinion became evident as the discussion proceeded. For instance, opposing views were ventilated as to the desirability of including foodstuffs within the scope of the inquiry. Yet none of these differences obstructed agreement to omiti no strictly relevant topic from the survey. Of great promise was the speedy settlement of the method of procedure; there was not a hint of the factious spirit that too often marks discussions of the agenda when international conferences are getting to grips with work. A striking unanimity was manifested on the issue occasioning the appointment of the committee. No country, said Sir F. W. Leith Ross, British member of the committee, was completely self-sufficing, and the question of raw materials could not be settled by any transfer of territory, even if it were decided to transfer whole continents. The representative of the International Labour Office, M. Maurette, was quite as definite in asserting that territorial readjustments would not solve the problem. From the chair M. Stucki, Swiss expert, voiced the committee's general belief that there were no real physical • difficulties in obtaining raw materials; the problem was essentially financial —all with means of payment could have what they desired. Thus the committee, at the very commencement oi its work, turned from the territorial aspect, of which so much has been popularly made, to the commercial ; and without dissent it accepted the view of "an abundance of raw materials, which producers are only too anxious to sell." Already it has done something to discountenance the territorial demands provocatively hurled by trouble-makers, and to clear the way for saner talk and action..