The Hokitika Guardian TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 1922. THE GENOA CONFERENCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 March 1922, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 1922. THE GENOA CONFERENCE.

Thu Economic. Conference called by the Italian Government and now fixed to be held at Genoa on 10th April will have a far-reaching effect if it attains an equal measure of success to the recently held Armaments Conference Washington. AH through last year, remarks the mercantile Gijjetto, trade was dull, and the position was felt by every country. Because of the stagnation of trade money has become plentiful, and gilt-edged curities have been in demand, ih s investment movement had been supplemented by a considerable amount of pure speculation, and, as the cables have recently informed us, there have been numerous failures, especially ,n New York, where about fifty of th» “kerb” brokers collapsed during *'c last month. The stagnation in trade is peculiar, and is not due to any lack of demand, but to inability to pay for the goods; in other words, Europe has been s 0 impoverished by tlw war that the peoples are unable to maintain themselves. In the “Journ 1 ! of the Canadian Bankers’ Association ’ Mr Arthur W. Kiddy, financial ed ; - tor of the London “Morning Post” treats on the problem of international indebtedness in an illuminating mann >r and presents the complicated problem the Genpa. Conference will have to deal with. So fa r as Britain is concerned, expectations of ally recovery in trade being very slow are based main." upon the fact that so large a proportion of Great Britain’s customers mi the Continent are for the moment, hors de combat. In considering tSfc deplorable conditions of Russia, Austipa and other Europear countries, must the circumstance he regarded simply from the standpoint of their being no longer able to buy from Britain —for neither can they send grain and other important commodities at low prices, and this tends to complicate :he 1 outlook both as regards tne exchanges and prices. At the Conference thp

whole question of international indebtedness must be considered. Genua iv is indebted in the shape of rfeparutio i payments to the European Allies oi a total of from six to seven ihonsau I millions sterling, payable by instalments of a little over a hundred millions sterling a year. The Allies a e indebted- to the United States for a total of a little over £2,000,000,000 oi which about one-half is owed by Gre t Britain, and this debt so far has hem entirely in the nature of a ‘note ci hand,” hut which will shortly be fun •- ed under the legislation recently pftsed h,v Congress. The Allies, includi'Y ißussia, are indebted to Great Britain to the extent of about £1,800,0-.-' h All the exchanges are demoralised, r-c. if further demoralisation is to be averted the greatest skill will he tibfeded in arranging a system of payment Tlie simplest and perhaps the most effective course to adopt would he the mutual cancellation of indebtediuv-. but the United States lias already made it clear that she will dom<i.i u repayment. It is very necessary, therefore, that all the creditor countries should make up their minds to oile thing, lialnely, that if anything a; • proaching to early repayment of the 'amounts due to them is to ho aCcto iplished it can only lie done by tlie debtor countries increasing their exports of goods and services-. If th. United States is determined to Uxa.-t the utmost from li'er debtors in thp wav Of repayments, it is difficult tO see limv she will Succeed if at thfe same tim,. her enthusiasm increases for high • ■ riff and protectionism in its most stringent form. The only solution which could be reached, calculated ’ o res torn stability to the exchanges and freedom of international trade would l e along the lines of considerable hilitual consideration. MjUt’nal Caiicejlatk'd Would he even simpler, hot front medyes of generosity or pity, hut frbih those of self-iiiterest. The dislocation of the foreign exchanges is not in itself a cause, but all effect, and one of Urn U'luses of the dislocation of the foreign exchanges is that tub debtor countries lire Hi arreiir to count. - !'s such as the United States in the in liter of the repayment of gbods aiid Services rendered by the States during the war. Some international agreement must be arrived at which will secure a stable standard of value in Continent'’! countries in which commodities can . •> measured;, Tirade can never flourish while the busirlesh man is compelled to gamble oh the fluctuations of the foreign exchanges. If the pending Genoa Conference can handle tlie probb'i’i satisfactorily the effect will he !-r----reaching and trade recovery will begin immediately.