The Wanganui Chronicle WEDNESDAY,AUGUST 4, 1948. THE DANUBE

Wanganui Chronicle, 4 August 1948, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle WEDNESDAY,AUGUST 4, 1948. THE DANUBE

THE Danube is an international waterway. The Russians, however, are not interested in internationalism and therefore they are seeking to close this waterway to the trade and commerce and shipping of the western world. The chief concern here is to close off south-eastern Europe from the west. There is trouble enough with Yugoslavia at the moment for the Communists and should ships of every nation penetrate deep into the southern and eastern European territories the Iron Curtain will soon be valueless. It is to avoid this development that Russia is endeavouring to drive out American, British and French shipping. From the Russian standpoint the present policy is defensive in character; but from the standpoint of the Powers whose rights arc likely to be curtailed if the Russian policy prevails it in an aggressive act.

The difficulty arises how to deal with such a situation as is developing. Immediately the Western Powers assert their rights there are people who immediately declare that they are taking the nations to the brink of war for the sake of appeasing Big Business. This is a specious argument. It takes no cognisance of the faet that it is not Big Business that is creating the situation; that it is not in the interest of Big Business to promote a war of any kind; that it is not Big Business that comes into the matter at all; but the right of a nation to trade. Trading means the exchange of goods. Goods that are required by the people of today are made up of produce from various parts of the world. There is hardly a product, from ap ordinary kitchen chair to a scrubbing brush, that is not an international product* It follows then that if trade is held up then so is production, and when production declines down goes employment of an economic character. When employment changes from economic employment to that which is uneconomic the community engaged in it declines in the ownership of wealth. When unemployment occurs. Big Business is most likely to be blamed for it no matter what is the cause. The major concern of Big Business is to keep the volume of business big. The problem of the Danube is to decide where to make a stand and to run the risks of becoming involved in a war. The Russians, playing the Nazi role, are seeking to exploit not the belligerency of the west but its disinclination to engage in an openly hostile act of protection of its rights. The longer the resistance is delayed the greater will be the problem eventually to be resolved. That was the lesson learned at Munich and that is the lesson Mr. Bevin is learning once more.