The Wanganui Chronicle. WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 1942 INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 116, 20 May 1942, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 1942 INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION

THE reconstruction which will have to be undertaken after the present conflict has been brought to a conclusion will naturally be larger in its conception and, it is hoped, farther reaching in its objective, than any previous planning effort. The problem will be of greater magnitude than any other of like nature which has been presented in the past, and it will also be an urgent one which will demand solution at the price of widespread chaos. The present war effort is absorbing men and materials, and the toll of military destruction only adds to the total loss that must be faced. Clearly it will be a world that is poorer, that is tired, and that is disillusioned on many important phases of life. Old lamps will be exchanged for new by many unthinking people, and many false prophets will arise who will promise Heaven upon earth by such simple processes as running into debt without making provision for repayment and similar proposals. People whose life-plan has been shattered may be as willing in the post-war period as they 'were during the Great Depression to gamble with the whole of the community set-up in the hope of fluking a solution. It need only be said that experience is against success being attained in that way. But* upon what lines shall the reconstruction of the world be based? The general direction of the plan must be decided now, for if there be a multiplicity of aims there will be no hope of success being attained. Fortunately, a great deal of work has already been done and among the elite of the economic world of thought the ground has actually been cleared. It is upon this work that tho reconstruction effort must be based. Fortunately the Economies Section of the Secretariat of the League of Nations is continuing its work in America, and so a band of international experts are already available to guide and to advise those who are willing to take expert advice. Those who desire to solve the world’s problems by picking ideas out of a hat will not be interested in the wealth of information which can be made available to them from this authoritative source. !• oi'tunalely those who are now in authority in America and in Great Britain have felt the urge to be guided by experience and expert investigation. The World Economic Conference broke down not hecau.se num were prepared to argue against the obvious course, but because they were not sufficiently prompted to make sacrifices in order that the international commonweal might benefit. It was no easy task for politicians to go back to their electorates and to take the responsibility for having given something away; electorates arc inclined to take a short view and to vote accordingly. The Economies Section of the Secretariat of the League, finding that the World Economic Conference was abortive, could only counsel the nations to make bilateral agreements where they were able to do so in the hope by that means of enlarging the area of freer trade, which is another way of saying engaging in more international co-operation. This was the policy which Mr. Cordell Hull implemented for the United States of America, and it is a policy which promised well for American trade ami commerce. After the failure of the World Economic Conference the British Commonwealth met at Ottawa with Ute object of ringfencing the Empire, in the hope that ati economic unit which had been built up with the world as its markets could cure itself of its ills by endeavouring to truncate its activities. It. was as logical as a man cutting off a leg in the hope that it would enable him more efficiently to nourish the remainder of his corpus. Reconstruction in the world of to-day cannot be met by dismemberment. It was th.e inability of the German people to find a place in the economic sun that led them to turn to Hitler. It was the inability of tl.- 1 Italian people to collect anything but. deserts that led them to turn to Mussolini, and it was the inability of the ■Japanese to find a niche appropriate, to their increasing population in the world economy that Jed to the Shogunate taking to more adventurous courses. The world has grown smaller, and no parts of it can be left aside; they must all be placed within the modern jigsaw. It is no easy task; it is a task that will tax the greatest minds of the world, but eventually success will depend upon how the average man views the world problem. If he wants to live in isolation and to ignore his neighbour in Norway ami Peru and insists upon the attitude of “look after yourself and let the other fellow do likewise” being adopted by hi.s country, then the world will remain poor foi- a very long time after this war has been brought to a conclusion.