OTTAWA CONFERENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21647, 18 May 1932, Page 11

OTTAWA CONFERENCE

THE DOMINIONS’ OPPORTUNITY MR BALDWIN’S WARNING. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, April T. In an address to his constituents at Worcester, Mr Baldwin gave a warning of the far-reaching possibilities that may attend failure of the Ottawa Conference. “We have already restored for good and all British prestige,” he declared in a reference to the nation s great efforts since last August. , “ Some play,” he said, “ has been made by those who disapprove of the changes by saying that we have imposed a permanent system of protection On the country. Nothing is pex - manent except the folly of mankind. . ~ “ We shall not be through our troubles in a moment,” he continued, “ but we are heading in the right direction. There is no question about that. There is a new spirit of hope and confidence at home, and, what is very remarkable, this countrj has more than regained the old confidence that foreign countries had in us as with all our faults jthe safest and the most stabilised country in the world to- . What we suffered from last August is not uncommon among the nations to-day. What is uncommon is the way our people faced up to it. . It is that which has restored our prestige and which has enabled us to recover bur position. That is the reason why foreign money, withdrawn in panic last summer, is coming back once more into this country. To have got that conviction into the minds of the woalct is worth something, and justifies to that extent the existence of our Government to The’ fiscal system, Mr Baldwin said, was going to be judged on its merits alone. They were going to put to the proof whether the fiscal system upon which thev were entering was going to do that good to the country or a portion of it which they had believed it would do. If it did do good, the system would continue so long as it did. If it failed, the system would be changed, and that was the common sense of the matter. LARGER ECONOMIC UNIT. “ The whole tendency, at least in men’s minds, is to the larger economic unit. That is the natural process of evolution, and it is to help that process that we are going to Ottawa in July. I hope that that conference will lay the foundations of much closer economic union than exists to-day. We are really at the cross-roads in our Imperial fiscal relations. We are bound either to go forward on the roadthat leads to closer economic union, or we are bound to take another road. “Never has a conference been held in which the opportunities are greater, but in which, if those opportunities should not be taken, the course of events may lead us all far apart. The natural destiny of our country is economic union with our own flesh and blood. If that cannot be accomplished it may well be we shall be driven to look towards Europe. It may well be with the parts of the Empire that if they do not move to that closer union among themselves,their economic 'interests may lead them in half a century far away from those who are now their brothers. If we all realise when we meet in July where the path of co-operation is and the path of want of co-opration, I am, perfectly certain that whether progress be great or small it will be progress on. the only lines that can keep together the peoples of the Empire in the years that lie before us. A GOOD START. The National Government, Mr Baldwin said, had made a good start. There was not a question which was not under study and consideration, but the troubles we were suffering from were not altogether our own troubles. They were world troubles, and until the trade of the. world improved, we could not make much progress in this country by ourselves. Low prices were caused largely by the appalling financial condition of the world. That could only be improved by cordial and intelligent co-operation on the part j of the nation of the world. At Lausanne the questin of reparation* would come up for investigation and review. There was to be a Danubian States Conference, and the conference at Ottawa would bear directly on many of the problems that beset us. “ The Government,” comments the Daily Telegraph, “have deliberately postponed negotiating with the European countries on the basis of the new fiscal system until they have talked economic partnership with the dominions and peen whether articles can be drawn up to the mutual advantage of all. The country, in spite of the discredited prophets of the Old Dispensation, will give a fair trial to the New, assuming, of course, that,, if it fails, the system will be changed, which, as Mr Baldwin truly said, is ‘ the common sense of the matter.’ We have learnt nothing from the economic distresses of the last 10 years if we have not learnt that fiscal systems must accommodate themselves to the times or perish.” MONETARY POLICY. Mr Sydney Jacobs (a director of Messrs Joseph Nathan and Co.) writes to The Times on an important aspect of the conference. “It is encouraging to see that in all directions preparations for the Ottawa Conference are proceeding speedily,” he says, “but one notices that most of these preliminary discussions are confined to subjects affecting interchange of_ trade within the Empire. That is one important aspect of the matter, but I venture the opinion that even more important is the question of monetary policy. Unless the Empire can agree—upon measures to check the present progressive deflation, ns a precursor of tariff questions, etc., then I fear that trade arrangements will be shorn of much of their value. Preferences at prices which still leave the producer of foodstuffs and raw materials in the dominions with a loss can only lead to disappointment and disillusionment. So long as prices are steadily forced down and the primary producer deprived of his purchasing power, British industry cannot hope to find those expanding markets within the Empire which it so badly needs. ’ “ One feels that if monetary policy could be adjusted within the Empire, then half the battle would be won, and trade arr'angements that follow could be carriedalong on a soundly regular basis.”