THE ROUND TABLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21621, 16 April 1932, Page 19

THE ROUND TABLE

OTTAWA CONFERENCE. (From Odr Own Correspondent.) LONDON, March 1. An important article in the March number of the Round Table deals with .the prospects for the Ottawa Conference under the title of “A Great Opportunity.” From a more rational economic view of the Empire (the writers say), we may yet proceed to a healthier politi-, cal view, which will reconcile the independence of the parts with the development of a common policy for the whole, seeking the advantage of all through the promotion of world peace. But a great opportunity always implies a great ganger, the danger of failing to grasp* the opportunity. If this fresh'and powerful sentiment is spilled upon the ground or is allowed to engender merely a set of unnatural bargains for the benefit of special interests, it may never appear again. If the British Commonwealth, -with all the force of imperial loyalty and of common blood and tradition to strengthen its purpose, cannot by concerted effort stem the tide of economic nationalism and set an example to the world, w’hat can be expected of conclaves and alliances which' have no such bonds? The failure would be a failure in the eyes of the world, and the consequent sneers at the boasted unity of purpose in the Commonwealth would be accompanied by general disillusionment and cynicism. How' can France and Germany be expected, to agree on the complex matters of disarmament, frontiers, or reparations if on the simple issues of economic policy Great Britain and her dominions cannot reach ah accord? A POSSIBLE DISASTER. An imperial economic policy, which was only a super-nationalism in the field of trade and tariffs, imposed'upon the unrestricted nationalism of the parts, would be a disaster to the Empire and to the world; it would strangle the trade by which every one of us must live, and, what is more, would contain the germs of its own defeat. An Empire still divided by high tariff walls, and ringed about by an almost imscaleable barrier against the rest of the world, woujd be an empire doomed to decay if not to disruption; yet it is the inevitable conclusion of economic policies urged upon us by some who most emphatically profess and call themselves imperialists. /' " , The basis of the new imperial economic system must be mutual advantage or it will be an unsubstantial, jerrybuilt makeshift doomed to early collapse. Buying and selling are reciprocal functions, and the wealth that .goes into a country by purchase should be regarded with no greater suspicion than the wealth that goes out by sale. If the world has not yet learnt that lesson then we had better shrug our shoulders and wait until the complete breakdown of international exchange drives us to a system of barter which would teach us the lesson painfully in words of one syllable. J Other subjects dealt with in this number are the International Crisis; China, Japan, and Manchuria; Round Table Conference; Reparations in Practice; and the United States in the New Year. Those responsible for the New Zealand section of the quarterly explain the new political situation in the Dominion,' and the new financial policy. -