TOPICS OF THE DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20207, 29 May 1937, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

The Way Out « Tlie peoples of the world are beginning to realise that closely associated with disarmament and peace is the imperative necessity for freer trade and economic understandings between the nations. Every month that passes emphasises this fact, and under these circumstances we must realise that economic peace assists the crusade for making ‘world peace possible.' With the joint statement of monetary and commercial policy issued by the French, United States and British Governments on September 26, 1936, the world entered into a new phase of economic development. The adjustment of currencies thus initiated opened the way for economic improvement in a number of countries. The great depression, in its more acute manifestations, is now definitely a thing of the past. Not so its consequences.”—Mr P. W. Martin, in the International Labour Review. “Collective Security?” “When it came to action, Great Britain alone had the power to restrain Japan, and Great Britain alone showed any zeal in the cause of Abyssinia against Italy. That, if we face the facts, was ‘collective security’ in the only two serious test cases in which it has been invoked. The Labour Party have suggested that, if they had been in power, they would have gone to all lengths on these occasions, even to the length of fighting single-handed in the cause of ‘collective security.’ I doubt if they would have done so, but there is clearly something wrong when we have even to think of fighting single-handed for a system called ‘collective.’ I do not think our Government can be blamed for declining to bear such a burden. What is needed now is not to revive recrimination on these matters, but to avoid repeating these mistakes, as we may easily do if we go on talking and thinking of ‘collective security,’ as if it were something in full operation.”