The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, APRIL 17, 1933. SHOULD BRITAIN COMPROMISE?

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19467, 17 April 1933, Page 6

The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, APRIL 17, 1933. SHOULD BRITAIN COMPROMISE?

Mr Ramsay MaMonald’s decision ( to insist that no limits should lie ( imposed on the subjects men- 1 tioned in the course of conversa- j tions between the President of the ( United States and himself will t give powerful American and j French interests the long sought s opportunity to make a very , strong bid to persuade Britain to j return to the gold standard. 1 Already we have been informed , that the conversations are expected to consider the increased 1 use of silver as currency by the ; principal nations, while other r groups are loud in their demands | that the restoration of the gold f standard ought to be one of the j first questions discussed by the representatives of the nations assembled at Washington at the r invitation of the President. More- t over, the Council of the Inter- £ national Chamber of Commerce, f which has its headquarters in t London, suggests the creation of t an international monetary stand- { ard preliminary to the restoration c of the gold standard. The currency issue is coming so much to the front in international discus- ‘ sions and negotiations, that already the question is being j asked: Should Britain compromise on the gold standard? In ' 1923, Mr J. H. Keynes, the wellknown English economist, wrote J that “the gold standard is already a barbarous relic.” Obviously the 1 opinions of this distinguished ' authority are not shared at least ‘ by the gold holding countries of * the world. Mr Keynes now suggests, however, that if this were ‘ true ten years ago can it be pos- ! sible to-day to forecast a respectable future for it, when in the ! meantime it has betrayed all the hopes of its friends? Of course , the suspension of the gold ‘ standard does not necessarily indicate that the monetary system ‘ of the future will find no place for gold. Even Mr Keynes lias gone 1 so far aw to suggest that central , banks will continue in the future, J as in the past, to keep gold , reserves for the protection of their j exchanges, and as an emergency means of settling an adverse international balance. The leading ‘ currency authorities, however, point out that the existing position is highly paradoxical; indeed, it is urged that it ought to be obvious to everyone that those | countries which have abandoned the gold standard, are enjoying a ‘ great advantage over those which ( still adhere to it. The countries , which are off gold have had more stable prices; their exchanges have settled down at a figure at which their export industries can live in relation to world competition; and their Central Banks freed from the task of having to protect their gold reserves, can ‘ without any anxiety maintain low , rates of interest and abundant credit suited to their domestic • needs. Mr Keynes points out that , country after country abandons j or moves farther away from the gold standard, and the pressure of . facts is towards a further progressive abandonment of the gold standard; all the pressure of i international diplomacy is towards restoration. The early j comment on the possible outcome of the conversations President Roosevelt proposes to hold with the representatives of the leading powers, makes it quite plain that j a combined effort will be made hy gold holding countries to impress upon Britain the urgency of a reconsideration of her attitude ] on the gold standard, and this ' concerted attack will be more impressive because Mr Ramsay Mq.cdonald is not unacquainted t with the pressure and the complaints of Great Britain’s European neighbours, who believe that ! the unsteadiness of sterling is an t important obstacle in the way of ■' world recovery. Already the 1 powerful strings of international diplomacy and Franeo-American i finance are being pulled; indeed, 3 it is well known that at the pre- 1 liminary meeting of the World s Economic Conference early in i January, the utmost pressure was i put on the British representative to agree to put a return to gold N in the forefront of the pro- s gramme; indeed, the attitude of 1 American diplomacy and finance 1 is revealed in the views of Mr 1 Walter Lippman, Ihe American c publicist, who has been represent- ] ing Great Britain’s sterling policy 1 as a sort of reprisal against war debts, and he went so far as to c demand that “the American 1 people should reject plans to i settle war debts before discussing t the British request for cancella-- s tion.” It is only too clear that if ( Mr Ramsay Macdonald places no ‘ restriction on the subjects to be ] discussed at Washington, he will < very early be brought face to face with the terrific pressure to f return to the gold standard that j will be put upon the Old Country 3 in connection both with war debts J and the issues to be decided at ‘ the World Economic Conference. — t l SAVE THE SOIL. i One of the most arresting state- ( meats made by any New Zealand l organisation established to pro ' mote the best interests of the J Ilominion, is featured in the latest , bulletin issued by the New Zea- ’ land Native Bird Protection |! Society. "The whole question of O New Zealand's future prosperity j j

and the fate of wild life,” says the report of the Society, “hinges on the return of our native forests to their natural state, or as near as possible.” It is urged that the backbone of the prosperity of New Zealand is the efficient use of the land, and the backbone of the land is efficient conservation of the country’s indigenous forests, because they prevent erosion and thereby save from destruction the fertile lands on the plains. Captain Sanderson, secretary of the Society, writing in the Society’s latest bulletin on the subject of top-soil depletion, quotes Mr Arthur M. Hyde, former American Secretary of Agriculture in the United States, as saying: Some pages in human history reflect no credit upon mankind. First in importance is that page which describes man’s treatment of the soil. Man was placed in a garden. He has transformed vast areas of it into desert. He has destroyed the cover on thousands of acres; he has laid waste wide stretches of pleasant country; he has made human life all but impossible in many places. The world is full of examples. Mediterranean nations now eke out a bare existence where once they maintained a flourishing civilisation. China periodically suffers from famine brought about by man’s own destructive hand.

Commenting on this challenging accusation of man’s improvidence. Captain Sanderson points out that in New Zealand, where we have an extremely mountainous and hilly formation, the evils following deforestation are very pronounced even in the comparatively few years which have elapsed since the forest was destroyed. European authorities assert that it takes four hundred years on an average for a forest to build one inch of top-soil, while agricultural and pastoral pursuits destroy an inch in from ten to fifty years, according to the steepness of the country and the intensity of the destruction of tree and shrub growth. In New Zealand the loss of top-soil through over-grazing of steep country is probably much more than one inch in ten years. Authorities well versed in this important subject say that New Zealand's indigenous forests are the agents especially designed by Nature to prevent excessive floods because, owing to their dense floor covering when in their natural state, they hold back and retain surplus rainfall. In many other ways, the forests are essential to the well-being of this country, such as in the maintaining of equable climatic conditions, and because they give off into the atmosphere in times of drought, that moisture they have conserved during periods of heavy rainfall. These indigenous forests, which cannot be replaced, are now being rapidly destroyed by ever-recur-ring fires, the conversion of steep country into non-eeonomical use, and above all by introduced planteating animals for the pleasure and sport of the very few. “Shall we in New Zealand,” asks Captain Sanderson, in his appeal for the protection of the forests, “follow the usual footsteps of the AngloSaxon race or be wise in time and learn to sacredly conserve the remnant of our irreplaceable indigenous forests, and thereby avoid the superhuman task of substituting them with vastly inferior exotic forests, so far as water conservation is concerned, and at a cost which New Zealand could not in the remotest degree afford even to contemplate?”