PEACE DEMANDS ON PERFECT BALANCE

Chronicle (Levin), 22 May 1946, Page 8

PEACE DEMANDS ON PERFECT BALANCE

ec'onBMig and ^OtiTicAL FACTORS tONU'OY-, MaV "2b. • Mr. Bevin, in a speech 'at the National Farmers ' Union dinhei'_, Oii 'tliC 6vC of the International A'gricultiiral Pr'oducers ' Conference, cl'amied that n'o Foreign Secretary eoul'd w'Ork out peac'e unless the whole of the ecohbmi'c factors were brought into .proper rei'ation with the political faetoi's tlih't d'etermined world peace. "Tt is by bringing the producers iilto real harmony with the ni'hsses through higher living standards 'that Demd*cracy can fuKil its proper func'tiOhs, J ' he said. Mr. Bevin urged the r'epiesentatives of the 31 natiohs a't the cohference to talk the same langtiage beeause they grew the same crops, had "the same fight with Mo'ther Nature, and to become "one farmer through out the world." He urged them to g'et stabl'e, but not excessive prices. Mr. feevin said he did not like gambles in agrieultural products because it was suicide for the eountrv and industrv alike. He urged them to strive to obtain stable international price levels. Greediness i would break any orgahisation. It was a | question of absolute bala'uce and service between one part of the comniun ity and the other throughout the world. Nazisin" and Communism could not exisi if fear, want and starvatioh WCre removed and while liberty of thought and reason were preserved. Tt was no advantage to Trade Unions unless they Avere prepared to see that the pcasants who formed the majority of the world 's inhabitants marched with them. No Government could suppoft the grea't ' Hot Springs poliey an'd develop a food organisalion unless the producers, distriliutors and Labour supported it. Tlre president of fhe 'Natirtnal Fafmers' Union, Mr. .Tames Turner, who visited New Zealand and Australia last year, said that nations must agree on what they could agfee aiid by selective elimination .remove those thin'gs 'on which they did not agre'e. HeTegates to the conference would talk "a's fariuers to farm'ers and tluts make' "mountain - into moleliills and htolehills" 'disapp'ear. The growing consciousnCSs 'of .Governments of the importanfe of food and agriculture was sliowu by the est'ablishment of the United Nations food and agricultural organis'atioil. Noav tlve producers themselves, by thcir qtresence at the conference, aceepted' their share of responsibility to maukind.' GovCrn ments and producers "conid solve the world 's feeding and" clothing probleiPs only by joint action and an earnest rosolve that freedom from huhger and from want nCed no longer be. an idlo dream. The conference must infusC realism into its own c'ontribution for the achievement. of that ideal. Agricul tural prosperitv, coupbuT with equitable distribution of agricultural products, was oue of the kovs to lasting peace. . • • ■ '