WELL RECEIVED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 852, 28 August 1933, Page 1

WELL RECEIVED.

Newspaper Comment on Wheat Agreement. “USEFUL SALVAGE WORK.” British Official Wireless. (Received August 28, 1.15 p.m.) RUGBY, August 26. The wheat agreement was generally well received by the Press, and several newspapers describe it as an important instalment of a programme towards economic recovery. “ The Times ” considers the agreement may help towards a solution of other difficulties which appeared insuperable at the World Economic Conference. It adds that the benefits to be expected are contingent, not merely upon ratification by Governments, but also upon the effectiveness of the steps taken to bring about a rise in the world price, and, therefore, upon the way importing countries interpret in practice the general undertakings given in return for the very definite steps which exporting countries have pledged themselves to take. These undertakings, in spite of their vague and indefinite character, are to be welcomed as the first real indication on the part of countries which have hitherto pursued a policy of extreme agrarian protection that they are prepared to consider some modification in the general interest, provided the interests of their own producers are properly safeguarded. / The “ Morning Post ” thinks the conference has done a useful piece of salvage work. The plan itself is not heroic, but, compared with the result of some other conferences, it is a real triumph. It may also have an advantageous secondary effect if it encourages the farmers to substitute mixed farming for excessive reliance on one product. The “News-Chronicle” says the agreement represents essentially one more effort to raise prices by artificial scarcity—a thoroughly vicious principle. The only ultimate solution lies in the willingness of European countries to abandon the policies of economic nationalism, which they have been pursuing at the cost of ' dear bread for their own people and ruin for the farmers overseas. The “ Manchester Guardian ” also dislikes the restriction principle, but adds that one surveys without hope the alternative—a continuing glut, added to each year by highly protected countries exporting a relatively small surplus, irrespective of cost, and holding to ransom those better fitted to export, but dependent upon exporting at a profit. If the Wheat Conference has saved the world that madness, it has not laboured in vain. The “ Daily Telegraph ” hopes the agreement may lead to a further measure for organised production and marketing of a product which plays so great and vital a part in international econom}’. Greatest Constructive Effort Yet Made. LONDON, August 26. Mr R. B. Bennett, Prime Minister of Canada, interviewed on his departing homeward, expressed satisfaction with the wheat agreement. The “Financial Times” says that, whatever its imperfections, the wheat agreement represents the greatest constructive effort yet made to assist in quickening the wheels of trade. LONDON OPTIONS RISE. (Received August 28, noon.) LONDON, August 27. Following the Wheat Agreement London options rose about sixpence per quarter. Liverpool increased by from three halfpence to one penny three farthings per cental.