The Hokitika Guradian FRIDAY, AUGUST 4th, 1922. TO MEET WAR RESULTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 August 1922, Page 2

The Hokitika Guradian FRIDAY, AUGUST 4th, 1922. TO MEET WAR RESULTS.

It in eight years to-dnv since ureat Britain entered the Great War and it will take many eight years of peace to wipe out the results of the war on the nation. Many decades must roll by', before Europe can attain the standard of comfort and living enjoyed at this period of .1914. Mr A. Balfour of the British Chamber of Commerce, lately visited America and he confessed to interviewers that the burden of the war debts is to be borne by the working masses of the world and that means a reduction to their present standard of living. He went on to say: “There is only one way in which the world’s debts and the reparation money can be paid, and that is by vast and continuous efforts on the part of I the people of the country, who have I to pay, and a great increase in produeI tive capacity per head of population. There must be more strenuous labor, , aided by improved methods of produc- [ non and organisation. The only other alternative is a great reduction in the standard of living. In some countries the standard of living has reached a point where it contains so much of luxury that the only way in which it can be maintained is by a vastly greater production and vastly greater individual effort than has been seen in recent yenrs. It will be necessary to look to the home lives of the various nations and the upbringing of the children and endeavour to return to the more simple 'and fundamental methods of training if we are to produce citizens who will cope successfully with the years of anxiety ahead.-” He com- / plained bitterly of taxation for social insurance, unemployment benefits and other measures of amelioration of tho workers’ lot in Great Britain and observed that “it is extremely difficult for those dependent upon votes to adequately face the reduction jp expend,, t-urw which must be brought about he. fore wo onn look for fv really steady im«

provenient in trade. Mr Balfour assorted that the British Government has “definitely stepped out of the arena” of conflict between capital and labor and that British labor is now accepting the necessary “sacrifices” to secure direct agreements with the employers, while Communist and Bolshevik influence in the leadership of the unions has ‘now ceased” to function. He even declared that British labor “now realises that to use its funds for political purposes and what is known as direct action or a combination of unions 10 menace the life of the community has proven a total economic failure.” Mr Balfour made a plea for American participation in the reconstruction of Htirope. The burden of reconstructing 11 11 rope and keeping the peace there rests upon the Anglo-Saxon shoulders, Mr Balfour said. Without complete ' co-operation of Britain and the United States there can Ire no permanent peace in the world, ho said. Soviet Russia, is , i nn cc nonlie and political failure Mr | Bdfoiir said, and she must start all : over again as a. purely agricultural nation. Knrope in general is bending under a great lond of taxation he said. This burden must be onscd if national insolvency is to be avoided. And So v. e get a very gloomy picture indeed of U',. world’s position and outlook eight years after the Great War to end war,