UNDER CURRENTSS

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17966, 11 March 1930, Page 6

UNDER CURRENTSS

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(By “Gleaner.”)

GENERAL SMUTS IN NEW YORK. General Smuts recently concluded his visit to the United States and Canada- His series of notable speeches was continued in New York in an address to the Foreign Policy Association. His later programme included visits to Cincinnati and Washington, and a call upon the President. During his stay, in -New;York General Smuts was moved to enthusiasm by the Museum of Natural History. “ I love the wilds," he said, “ and here you have an eternity of them. You count back a hundred million years and reconstruct it all, travelling down the ages, and all this is here in the heart of New Y'ork.” And New Y r ork struck him as a wonderful place“lt is the first city I have seen. Others are not cities, they are overgrown towns- London, Paris, and other such places are examples; the old overgrown into the new on a magnificent -scale. But New York is a new type, the city of the future, the latest development of human genius.” At a banquet in celebration of its tenth anniversary the League of Nations was described by this outspoken visitor as ‘ Arfierica’s baby left on Europe’s doorstep.” * * * • THE RIVER MURRAY. A hundred years ago, Sturt, starting out from Sydney to discover the vast inland sea then believed to exist in the interior of Australia, stumbled upon the River Murray, the great stream which, with its tributaries, waters a basin greater in area than most European countries. The three riverain Stales, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, are engaged this week in -commemorating the explorer's discovery. For navigation the Murray has been almost entirely neglected, and even to-day serves none but minor local traffic. The difficulty of constructing a harbour among the sandbanks which clog its outlet to the sea has been the great obstacle to its development as a highway for -trade. Inter-State jealousies also played their part. There is a more encouraging tale to be told of its use for irrigation purposes, but in this too progress was hampered by the 'conflicting interests of the three States- It is only about ten years since work was begun on a comprehensive scheme under an inter-State agreement and probably the full programme will not be completed for at least five years 'to come, although the original estimate of the cost has already been greatly exceeded. The British Economic Mission, commenting on the work, recommended a certain caution in proceed" ing further. * * * *

MINING HOURS AND WAGES.' The -technical’ conference on conditions of labour in coalmining, another Geneva gathering, is a practical consequence of the investigations of the Economic Council of the League of Nations and of the International Labour Office. The report published by ' this body nine months ago threw a glaring light- on the industry’s difficulties. The Committee suggested international agreements between producers concerning output, markets and prices; measures of assimilating, if not of equalising, wages, hours, and the social conditions of labour; and the abolition of artificial restrictions to trade in coal and artificial stimuli io production. Last September the Assembly of the League of Nations made, and the Council endorsed, a proposal that the International Labour Organisation should pursue the inquirv into hours and wages and the social conditions of labour as a matter of great urgency with the object of agreeing upon an international convention. The Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation rcadilv agreed. At' Geneva therefore the representatives of nine countries — their Governments, their coalowners, and their miners—met to discuss the possibility of rebelling an international agreement on hours of work and wages. Hours of work are easier to arrange than wages. But agreement on hours of work alone would be incomplete. * * * * TEN YEARS OLDThis meeting would have been useless without the careful preparatory work done by the International Labour Office. For such a body, with the larger benefit possible from the application of scientific methods to industrial conditions, the League of Nations is the world’s creditor- The total debt of gratitude is, of course, very much greater. Some personal effort to assess it would be an excellent way for Everyman to celebrate the League’s tenth anniversary. As yet the League is but a child, and it is a wise man who 'can gauge the potentialities of a ten-year-old- Already, however, this sign and instrument of a new order has many achievements to -its name. While providing the peoples with the international machinery of arbitration it lias given them a series of boons which ten years ago they hardly knew they lacked, and the full import of which they have still to learn. .4 » * * ANDRE TARDIEU. M. Andre Tardieu, who has just reconstructed bis Ministry, is the most forceful personality in French politics to-day. This is said without depreciating' M- Poincare, who suffers spells of feebleness and hesitation. That is why Tardieu torpedoed him in 1924Tardieu is medium height, as plump as is good for him, vivacious, humorous, ~ and, above all, efficient. A diplomat, he took up journalism, and as Foreign Editor of “ Lc Temps" did much to" mould French foreign policy, lie was High Commissioner in the U.S-A. during 1917-18, attached an American accent- to his English, became an expert in dollar exchange, and went, back to France as chief delegate under Clemenceau at Versailles. When he formed his Ministry, on October 31 last, M. Tardieu was unable to obtain Ihc support of groups on the Left. The particular group to which lie owed 1 iis fall was that of “ Republican Socialists and French Socialists,” a party of twelve members, hitherto supporters of tho Briand-Tardicu policies.