The Wanganui Chronicle. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1945. WORLD ECONOMIC SURVEY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 276, 22 November 1945, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1945. WORLD ECONOMIC SURVEY

yZICTORY caught the world unawares. The war was expected to go on lor quite a time: the enemy in defeat used it to strike one last blow. The result is that mankind everywhere sees a world economy geared to wartime needs suddenly and ruthlessly stopped and put into reverse. What is happening to-day? The picture is too vast for those following their lawful occasions to see. It requires a high tower from which to watch the play and the interplay of tlie various strains and stresses, resistances and destructions. Is there such a tower? Fortunately, there is. The League of Nations is a dead letter. It was killed by pernicious anaemia, for there was none to sec that it gained essential blood. But the League did breathe and did, have its being. This was more marked in its secretariat than hi anything else. This band of specialists was truly continually changing, but the body corporate remained, gathering wisdom and knowledge as tiie years went by. It found that its usefulness could best be expressed in the minor role: it could not take to the stage and unfortunately history took a hand and removed the stage for anyone else to play on. Why blame the League for that? The work in the minor role, however, was in the field of fact-finding, and in this the good work lias continued by having the League go on mission to the United States of America where it has been lor years established at the Princeton University. Here it has worked under difficulties, but nevertheless under such circumstances as to inspire by American kindness and hospitality the efforts of those immediately concerned. The Economics Section of the Secretariat has wisely seen fit to keep publishing the World Economic Surveys which were started under the able direction of Professor J. B. Uondliffc, who continued producing his “best seller” for the first seven years. The latest edition covers the eleventh year—to be more correct from 1942 to 1944. By the aid of this authoritative volume a world picture can be gathered at an important period of time, that is, just before victory came to the United Nations. Here is the world as it was but a few months ago. It is possible for those who-are concerned to do so to bring the survey up to date in any particular field. The survey deals with the period when the mobilisation of resources was brought to its climax and the strains of war throughout the world were carried to their maximum. In some particulars the story runs into the year 1945, but in the main it ends at the close of 1944.

What does this survey reveal? It reveals the prospective surpluses of raw materials in the post-war era and, more important, the wartime spread of synthetic materials. It also shows the extent of stimulation in food production throughout the world, a subject in which New Zealand is deeply concerned. Rationing and consumption in wartime will provide data for estimating the post-war food problem, at least, for a time. Au interesting series of graphs showing the note circulation and commercial bank deposits to tlfb end of 1944 enables the general reader to appreciate the extent to which inflation has gone on in New Zealand, and that development in comparison with the same movement in other countries. In this respect it is gratifying to discover that the graph of New Zealand currency and credit approximates to that of the United Kingdom in respect to the note circulation, and it will come as a surprise to many people that the currency distortions of the Union of South Africa, the United States, and Canada was greater than that of this Dominion. The year 1942 was the peak period in respect to war risk insurance rates, and it is interesting to note that the pattern of shipping losses was practically the same between Europe and South America and between Europe and Australia via Panama. The United States swung into production of shipping by the end of 1941, lifted production to over 3,000,009 deadweight tons by the end of 1942, exceeded 5,000,000 deadweight tons in the following year, and during the year 1944 zigzagged downwards. Statistics, however, are always history: they are never current. The survey is an excellent guide or background to study, but he who would follow world events in the economic or in any other field must piece together his picture from day to day. With the survey to guide hiin, however, he is unlikely to go very far wrong. That is its chief function: it permits those who will use it to keep the main picture steadily in view and to fit into that picture the new data becoming available. Truly it is a useful work.