WORLD COMMERCE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 236, 3 July 1944, Page 6

WORLD COMMERCE

Prosperity Indivisible, Says Delegate START OF MONETARY CONFERENCE (By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Received July 2, 7 p.m.) NEW YORK, July 1 "Commerce is the lifeblood of a free society, and we must .see that the arteries are not clogged again by artificial barriers created through senseless economic rivalries,” said President Roosevelt in a message at the opening of the United Nations monetary conference at Brotton Woods, New Hampshire. "EcuDomic diseases are highly communicable, and it. follows therefore that the economic health of every country is. a proper matter of concern to all its neighbours. "Only through a dynamic, soundlyexpanding world economy can the living standards of the individual nations be advanced to levels permitting the full realization of’our hopes for the future.” Mr. Henry Morgen! hau (U.S. Secretary of the Treasury), accepting the presidency of the conference, said that economic aggression could have no other offspring titan war. He hoped the conference would keep before it two elementary axioms: “First, prosperity has no fixed limits; the more other nations enjoy the more each nation will have for itself. Secondly, prosperity, like peace, is indivisible.” At the conference proposals will be presen'led for an international bank and for post-war monetary stabilization, hut all agreements reached must be referred to the Governments concerned.. Principal Tasks.

The principal problems are the promotion of international monetary co-opera-tion through permanent institutions; expansion of international trade to maintain a high level of world employment; the creation of a world fund of gold and currency on which the member nations may draw to correct maladjustments in their balance of payments; the promotion of exchange stability to avoid competitive exchange depreciation; the establishment of multi-lateral payments facilities ami the elimination of foreign exchange restrictions; and shortening periods of discauilibrium in the international balance of payments. The "Wall Street Journal” says that interest chiefly centres in rival plans submitted by British and American experts which are identical in nims_ but widely different, in method. Lord Keynes, head of the British delegation, appears to have discovered a way to operate an international fund without gold. On the other hand, the United States is most anxious to preserve the gold standard, mid apparently is willing to disburse many millions of dollars to operate a fund.

The New Zealand delegation is led by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash. It also consists of Mr. B. C. Asliwin, Secretary to the Treasury. Mr. E. C. Fussell, deputygovernor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. mid Professor A. G. B. Fisher, formerly Professor of Economies, Otago University, hut now associated with the Institute of International Affairs. Loudon.