The Christchurch Star. PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1933. A STRUGGLE FOR POWER.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 934, 2 December 1933, Page 10

The Christchurch Star. PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1933. A STRUGGLE FOR POWER.

XT' XCHANGE equalisation, for which the British Government created a special fund of £150,000,000, and for which the United States has now set up a rival fund, is a process by which countries seek to alter the currents of international trade, control international prices and invade one another’s markets. That it is used for economic aggression is hardly to be doubted, and the cablegram announcing the United States Government’s creation of a fund carries the struggle for power a stage further. Exchange equalisation has been described as a master mechanism, incredibly subtle and powerful, working in a way in which the money market cannot gauge its intentions or its moves, but effectively cheapening one currency at the expense of another. When a country cheapens its money, its exports are stimulated and its imports are checked, which is to say that it will buy less and sell more in the world of international trade. While America was on gold, many of her economists believed that Britain was using the fund to trade her out of her gold, and there was a demand for the abandonment of the gold standard, so that she could play the game of depreciation. But other economists believed that to debase the dollar would be to seize the weapon of exchange by the cutting edge, inasmuch as a competitive debasement of currencies could lead only to world-wide insolvency. These economists believe that Britain is planning a return to the gold standard when the signs are propitious, and they may be right. What America proposes to do about it is not clear, but the creation of an exchange equalisation fund is a certain sign of a change of front on the economic battlefield. THE “ BLEACHING ” PROCESS. A LTHOUGH the present controversy over the expediency of lynch law has arisen out of a case of mob violence directed against whites, in the majority of the lynchings in America negroes who are suspected of violating racial barriers are the victims. Yet it is a curious thing that this oneway mob effort to preserve racial purity and respect is being rapidly and surely frustrated by the efforts of the whites themselves, even by well-intentioned and philanthropic friends of the negroes. In 1862 President Lincoln said to a committee of free negroes: “Your race suffers greatly, many of them by living among us, and ours suffers from your presence.” Since then the policy of the whites has tended to make the aspiring negro assume that the only way of advancement lies not in racial development but in escape from race. According to Professor Reuter, the prospects of advancement for the mulatto are thirty-four times as great as those of the full-blooded negro, for the mulatto is everywhere accepted as the leader of the negro group. This is significant when linked with the fact that, as far as can be estimated, three years ago 31.2 per cent of the negro population was mulatto. Racially the negro suffers from whites who exploit him selfishly, and from those who try to help him by placing mulattoes in positions of leadership. And the Igst ill is subtle and deadly, because not only does it unwittingly place a strain on the negro ideals of race purity, but it, again unwittingly, encourages a “ bleaching ” process which threatens tile racial integrity of the whites. THE RESTLESS TASMAN. DELAYS in the launching of Ulm’s flight to New' Zealand are a reminder of the hopes deferred that marked the preparations of Kingsford Smith for the first crossing of the Tasman. The fact is, of course, that the Tasman is a troublesome storm centre to airmen still, and even the “ Faith in Australia,” which is the old “Southern Moon,” a similar vessel to the “ Southern Cross,” has had to be converted from a passenger machine into a long-range machine to make crossings like this.