THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES. MONDAY, JUNE 12, 1933. THE WORLD ECONOMIC CONFERENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21977, 12 June 1933, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES. MONDAY, JUNE 12, 1933. THE WORLD ECONOMIC CONFERENCE

The World Economic Conference, which will be opened in London to-day, is fraught with a significance that can hardly be exaggerated. To the outcome of its deliberations the peoples of the world are looking for a relief from the malaise with which they have all been affected. It is to he hoped that the expectations that have been aroused concerning the extent of the benefits that may accrue from the Conference are not extravagant. Concerning the magnitude of the evils that forced the acceptance by Governments throughout the world of the view that a conference should be convoked “ to decide upon the measures to solve the other economic and financial difficulties ” —other than the problem of reparation payments—“which are responsible for, and may prolong, the present world crisis ” there can unfortunately be no doubt. The fact alone that there are not fewer than thirty million workers in the world who are at the present time deprived, through no fault of their own, of their ordinary and regular employment is one of stupendous import, implying as it does that more than a hundred million people have been not only reduced to a standard of living lower than that to which they have been accustomed but also to dependence upon communal effort for their sustenance. This economic evil of unemployment presents the most serious problem of the day. It is accompanied by the paradox that there is an unprecedented accumulation of world stocks of products, particularly of agricultural products, one effect of which is that wholesale commodity prices are at an unprofltably low level. The price-declines have, as the Commission of Experts which has prepared a draft agenda for the Conference says in its preliminary report, “ thrown completely out of adjustment prevailing costs of the various factors of production, made business enterprise generally unremunerative, and seriously disorganised practically all the world markets.” The objective of the Conference is, therefore, to secure, as far as possible, a better distribution of the world’s products, to bring consumption into closer relationship with production, to create order out of chaos. It is, we should have supposed, an objective that might have been attained as a result of the consultation of a few men of acknowledged authority representative of the principal nations of the world more readily and more effectively than through the agency of a conference that will be so numerously attended as the Economic Conference in London will be. The dimensions which the Conference will assume are, in fact, not merely not reassuring but are actually disturbing. The reconciliation of the divergent views which may be anticipated in a Conference attended by over 160 statesmen and economists, representing more than 60 countries, must require the exercise of a great deal of patience and tact. Yet, though a feeling of scepticism is said to prevail at Home concerning the Conference, there must be a general recognition of the urgent necessity for devising means through which the crisis that involves the whole world may be terminated. “In essence,” the Preparatory Commission of Experts puts it, the necessary programme is one of economic disarmament. In the movement towards economic reconciliation, the armistice was signed at Lausanne; the London Conference must draft the Treaty of Peace.” The belief is expressed by the Commission that a policy of “nibbling” will be futile;— “the Governments of the world must make up their minds to relieve a broad solution by concerted action along the whole front.” It is earnestly to be trusted that the Conference may be large-minded enough to attack boldly and comprehensively the problems which confront it and sagacious enough to reach conclusions which will he productive of genuine and permanent relief to a distracted world.