The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, MAY 17, 1934. THE ISSUE AT GENEVA.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19801, 17 May 1934, Page 8

The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, MAY 17, 1934. THE ISSUE AT GENEVA.

More than two years of effort to persuade the world to scrap its weapons of war, have failed, and to-day among the many grave and important problems scheduled to be discussed by the League of Nations this month, the neverending disarmament crisis has been named as perhaps the most intricate. Every effort will be made to patch up some sort of agreement to prevent a feverish competition in armaments. Friends of the League of Nations have persistently predicted that failure of the Disarmament Conference would not kill the League, but they have been regarded as among the minority. But the problems confronting Geneva are nevertheless most pressing. Most of the cards are on the table, but the issue is no clearer, indeed, it is all the more obscure for their exposure. The British Government it recalled, put forward in January a plan which comprised five main points: partial rearmament for Germany, partial disarmament for the armed Powers, a system of control (if all else were agreed), consultation and discussion about breaches of agreement, and the return of Germany to the League of Nations. If the British policy should fail, according to Mr Stanley Baldwin, Britain will seek to make a regional air agreement between the Western Powers. This suggests the question whether the British Government would altogether abandon the idea of a general convention if its present plans fell to the ground. That would he a lamentable result, because a regional air convention would cover only part of the field, and the practical difficulties in securing it would be enormous. Turning then to the issue as between Germany and France, we find that Germany is more concerned about rearming herself with weapons at present denied to her than about the disarmament of others; she is steadily maintaining and, in various ways, training her 2,000,000 Storm troops, denying that they are “military formations.” While Germany insists on arms, France refuses them to her. France, affirming that Germany is already busily rearming in violation of the Treaty, declines to sanction German rearmament and refuses to begin her own disarmament so long as she has not security against the results. For security France asks two things: an efficiently working control and an undertaking by the signatories of the agreement to apply sanctions, which need not necessarily be more than economic, against any Power which deliberately persisted in violating the convention. If it were admitted that any agreement, however much below expectations, would be better than none, some of the observers suggest that the idea of immediate disarmament might be sacrificed for the sake of obtaining limitation if it could still he obtained. This was the scheme, it is noted, that the Italian Government has for some time advocated as a solution for the next six years. Failure to obtain even moderate disarmament would be bitterly disappointing, yet the warning has been issued that the choice might soon he not between disarmament and limitation but between limitation and naked competition.

TAXATION FOR RELIEF

One of the cynics once said that there is a passage in the Scriptures to which all the potentates and governors of Europe seem to have given their unanimous assent and approbation, and to have studied so thoroughly, as to have it quite at their lingers’ ends: “There went out a decree in the days of Claudius Ccesar that all the world should be taxed.” At. the moment all the world is being taxed with terrific severity. The issue raised by 'the South Canterbury Hospital Board has relation _ to the fundamental principle of just taxation. The people of Timaru have been told, in effect, to impose upon themselves additional burdens to provide the finance to relieve distress caused by widespread unemployment. The Hospital Board declares that the Government has laid down the principle that no relief should be granted needy peopfe whose plight is due to unemployment. This is incredible, since no Hospital Board dare refuse aid to needy women and children. Civic and municipal authorities, it is suggested, must carry the burden of providing relief for every unemployed citizen who finds his way into the cities and towns and with his family aggravates the normal problem associated with the loss of employment suffered by city and town dwellers. Once the unhappy victim of the economic blizzard drifts out of the country and into the town, responsibility for his welfare, so the South Canterbury Hospital Board says in effect, is transferred to tiie civic or municipal authority. The solution, so the,thoughtless say, is to increase the rates and thereby draw into city and borough treasuries additional thousands that can be made available for the relief of distress. But is this just or' practicable? Someone must provide relief find if the hospital boards are falling down on their plain duty, the needy people cannot be permitted to starve. But

the fundamentals of taxation must not be ignored; indeed, one of the most sagacious of English statesmen once laid down the principle that “it is altogether wise to have no other bounds for your imposition of taxes than the capacity of those who have to bear them.” Obviously, as Burke has said, “taxing is an easy business. Any projector can contrive new impositions, and any bungler can add to the old taxes.” Every local governing body can, we know, by a stroke of the pen, increase the rating levy and draw additional thousands of pounds into their purses, but would not such a policy violate the fundamental principle of equitable taxation, namely that imposition should be levied with regard to equality of sacrifice. If the local governing bodies throughout South Canterbury conceived the idea that the backs of the ratepayers were broad enough to carry bigger burdens, would such a system of taxation have regard to equity and capacity to pay. We think the unanimous verdict would answer in the negative. The State, on its part, as expressed in the Government, has at its disposal a taxing machine which can raise funds needed to relieve distress, by making demands upon those who have the capacity to pay. Civic and municipal authorities might levy additional rates for relief purposes, but the effect of such au obviously unsound practice would be to place a disproportionate share of the burden of taxation upon people unable to pay. Already, as the Mayor of Timaru pointed out the other day, an increasing number of ratepayers in town and country are meeting the demands of the local body taxgatherers out of capital, while a large section of the community, whose incomes liave been very little affected by the economic difficulties through which the country is passing (if the decreased cost of living is taken into account) would escape the heavier burden. In Timaru, too, as is well known to the authorities, there are many owners of property who are little better off than the men engaged on relief work. Hence it would be manifestly unjust to impose additional taxation in those cases, because they would be confronted with impositions that bore no relation to income. Obviously, then, the only just system of taxation for emergency purposes is not a local levy without taking into account capacity to pay, but State imposed taxation that has some regard to the actual incomes of taxpayers. For some time, an increasing body of public opinion has felt that the relief of distress due to unemployment ought to be regarded as the responsibility of the nation, and provision made within the limits of the country’s capacity to meet the needs of worthy people and their dependents who are really in need. To attempt to meet the position with voluntary subscription merely imposes a disproportionate burden upon the spontaneouslygenerous members of the community. The Government on its part, however, seems to have made up its mind to throw the responsibility upon the local authorities, without regard to the difficulties confronting civic and municipal authorities in particular, who find themselves face to face with their own problems, considerably aggravated by the migration to the centres of population of every country worker and his dependents who has been thrown upon his own slender resources by the loss of occupation due to the hard times through which the rural industries are passing. Plainly, then, no scheme of taxation that does not take into account the individual capacity to pay can be accepted as equitable and sound.

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Although playing a modest part in the trade and commercial activities of town and country, t he South Canterbury Chamber of Commerce had a most commendable record of work well done to present to the annual meeting of members last night. The presidential address made a departure from the customary practice of presenting an exhaustive review of the commercial outlook. The president, moreover, broke new ground by enunciating certain lofty principles he considered were fundamental to national progress and domestic happiness. Before concluding his address, however, the retiring president strayed perilously near the realm of party politics; at any rate, he launched a rather lively attack on the Government and incidentally gave his support to the restoration of the civil service cut “or at least a portion of it.” It is not difficult to suggest that the Government should open the gates for the employment of larger staffs in all departments and also give support to the demand for the restoration of salary reductions, but since such a policy would involve larger public expenditure, which Chambers of Commerce have persistently denounced, some direction ought to be given to the Government as to the source from which additional revenue could be drawn to meet the. cost of the president’s proposals. The members, themselves, indulged in quite useful discussions on important topics, and we have no doubt that as the return of prosperity creates more confidence in the future, the scope of the activities of the Chamber of Commerce will he widely extended and its usefulness substantially broadened in the discharge of its highly important functions.