NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 190, 10 May 1944, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The accumulation of National Savings to an amount exceeding £20,000,000 is a commendable public effort, and apart from the fact that this is a substantial addition to the funds of the War Expenses Account, it represents a check on inflationary spending which is invaluable. It should be recognized, however, that the anti-inflationary result of this campaign cannot truly be measured by the national total, as announced. Only a part of the money in National Savings accounts has been diverted from abnormal spending. There can be no doubt that the remainder —in some unknown proportion—represents diversion from some normal means of saving. Inflationary spending still persists, in some directions to a very marked extent; and unfortunately it is also apparent that among the most liberal spenders are many of those whose wages, under wartime conditions, have risen temporarily to levels which cannot possibly be sustained when noimal conditions return. On every hand there is evidence that the flow of money in the community, though it has beerf limited ty the draw-off of national saving and taxation, still remains large enough to be. perilous. Activated by that flow, uncontrolled prices are steadily rising. This situation makes it imperative that there should be no slackening of effort to encourage the deposit of surplus income, particularly that of the wage-earner who is inflation’s first and principal victim, and to whom the funds deposited in national savings accounts can provide a cushioning against the jolts of post-war adjustment.

All references to the restoration of international trade serve to * emphasize the fact that a general basic agreement is the first essential. According to a recent message from Washington the representatives of 21 American republics have issued a statement which has been interpreted as a threat that they might form “a hemispheric trade bloc as a counter-measure” to any continuation of the preferential trade policy between units of the British Commonwealth. The matter is not simply one of the flow of goods and raw materials. It involves, among other things, the question of transport, and if preferential tariffs are to go, then embargoes on participation in coastal shipping made to extend to teni tories some thousands of miles away, as in the case of Hawaii, or between overseas possessions and the Homeland, as in the case of 1 rance -"will also have to be dealt with. Viewed generally it would appear to be impossible for any nation at this stage to commit itself to marked changes of policy. The British preferential system has not built up a tariff wall as high as that of some other countries, and adjustments must be matters of mutual arrangement and agreement. It is not clear exactly what status the representatives of the 21 American republics who issued this statement possess, whether accredited diplomatic representatives or unofficial delegates to some conference, but if, as the cable message indicated, they have expressed their support of “liberal non-discriminatory trade policies,’ then the prospects of international agreement may have been brought a step nearer.