The Hokitika Guradian SATURDAY, AUGUST 19th, 1922. THE WEEK.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 August 1922, Page 2

The Hokitika Guradian SATURDAY, AUGUST 19th, 1922. THE WEEK.

Thk European situation is as difficult now as ever it was. Tim week has seen the breakdown of the London Conference, because of the divergent views of Britain and France in regard to the treatment of Germany. Among the Allies. France seems to stand alone, as the other representatives associated themselves with tho British attitude for more clemency for Germany. In the meantime the plight of Germany and Austria grows more and more difficult 1 financially. Indeed Austrian finance has broken down completely and Germany is on the verge of collapse. The position is growing more, and more acute. The French representatives have returned home, and the next move is for* France which is taking up a bellicose attitude. The Entente exists nowonly in name, fur any overt act on the part of France, without the consent ol' Britain will mean the break up of that useful alliance. The effect might lead to a regrouping of Powers, which it is conceivable cotdd be bad for France, were she to find herself isolated. The unrest and at the same time the helplessness of the, European Powers renders the situation one of extreme difficulty, and the developments in the coming week will be awaited with more than ordinary interest. Britain appears to l,e marking time. Her leaders are disposed to a line of action to which Franco will not agree. If France takes the aggressive it seems clear she must act alone, and it remains to be seen what effect that action will have on Franoo-British relations, financial as well'as commercial. The French press forgetful of war events is fuming at Britain and calling the British Prime Minister names. Perhaps the action is typical of the French character, but it indicates a short memory, not to put t«o fine a point on the French mental attitude.

The United States has a. nation-wide domestic trouble arising out of the general strike pervading the vast country. America will burn up much of the war profits by the enormous loss resulting from the continuance of the strike. The President lias his hands overfull, hut he has been unable to allay the trouble. Meantime the loss over the country is enormous, and it will take the United States a long time to recover the position. It is not unlikely as far as can be gleaned at this distance, that Lord Hal four’s debt extinction proposal was launched at a very inopportune time. The Americans were just receiving a handful of domestic trouble in the wide spreading strike, and the resultant dislocation of trade took tho people’s minds to more immediate and pressing business. Still it is evident that if America and Britain had joined hands in regard to tha European debts on the lines suggested by the British Note, there would be a great easing of the stringency among the nations of Europe. French requirements could have l>een mot more adequately than is now the case, and Germany would have been relieved also. As we read the financial proposal, it was a case of cutting tho loss at the enrliest moment, &nd so clearing the way for a quicker national recovery. That recovery is still barred, and von,' badly so in the light of reoent happenings, and all the nations and are the worse off in consequence. It Is difficult at times to adopt the heroic where great groups are contemplated. There is an element of courage and confidence in human nature nocessarv foT the task, and in this instance Great Britain alone appeared equal to undertaking it, Any credit for the attitucjo

is still to 'come for at present the : scheme is badly discounted both in America and France. * c It would appear that the course of 1 events in Ireland are shaping towards 1 tho inevitable favorable settlement. No 1 doubt the lamented death of President Griffith will be a setback, but the illconsequences of the rehollion are be- c coming so apparent that sooner or later j I now sanity must prevail, and Ireland come into her own. During the week there was the cabled suggestion that f the Free State and Ulster were likely 8 , to come to a workable understanding. [ There is news now that the back of tho ; rebellion is badly broken. There was the statement of Mr Collins which held ! out the olive branch even to the rob--1 els. These events are all indicative of a more favourable atmosphere, and the promise of better things to come in the near future. They are long overdue. Nothing can justify th e deplorable course events have taken of late in tbe task of satisfying the Irish nation in regard to the new order of national freedom. Houif rule is there for tile taking. The bulk of the nation * seized the opportunity with avidity. The recalcitrants wont into rebellion, and have carried on a condition of warfare which indicates a wonderful degree of organisation and preparedness. There has been a shocking waste of life rendered possible by the vast stores of munitions which could have been accumulated only at a tremendous cost. Tho destruction of property and wasting of the land lias been prodigious. Devastation is still being pursued and replacement cost if saddled upon the Irish people will Ik* ruinous. To make good the loss and renew the damage, will place a financial burden upon the nation which will have a most hamper- , ing effect on its deveopinent. Some rule will he dearly bought at the price, for tbe generations to come will have to hear their share of the repayments to he made.

• After a painstaking effort, the Lyttelton Times finds itsef unable to under--1 stand Mr Massey’s arithmetic. He recited in the Financial Statement, snys ; our contemporary, a long list of alleged savings and economies totalling £4,7251 813 in the Consolidated Fund and then ' gave an estimate of expenditure from i that fund in the current year showing i a reduction of only £278,623 on last year’s figures. What are the people of the country to make of this ? Intel--1 ligent men and women cannot very well e avoid the conclusion that either the eco- | nomies and savings are fictitious or additional means of spending have been u devised to absorb them. Some of the t “savings” certainly are of the imaginn j ary order, such as interest money that j does not have to he paid on money that a,, has not been borrowed. We should say j that the most disappointing item in a. Budget so colourless otherwise as to.be | simply wearisome is the estimate of ex- “ j penditure for the year. Let us set out , the actual receipts and expenditure in ~ | 1921-22 alongside the estimates for i 1922-23:

Revenue: 1921-22. Actual £28,127.,007 ; 1922-23. Estimated £26,250.000; Difference—Decrease £1,877,007. Expenditure—l92l-22. Actual £28,- , 466,838 ; 1922-23. .Estimated £28,188,215; Difference: Decrease £278,623. Deficit: 1921-22. Actual £839,831;

1922-23. Estimated £1,938,215: Difference: Decrease £1,598,384. The Finance Minister prefaced these j estimates with the correct but inconi sistent observation that “safe finance 1 demands that public expenditure should balance.” How he can reconcile this I with an anticipated expenditure nearly two millions greater than his revenue w 0 shall have to leave the good R-e----i formers to explain ns best- they can. Tlie ordinary man, the average taxpayer, will conclude that Mr Massey has failed to appreciate the imperative need of reducing expenditure, or else he has confessed that the task is beyond him. Faced with a second year of reduced revenue, a year in which he expects receipts to lx* £1,877.000 less than in 1921-22 and more than eight millions i loss than m 1920-21, he has now, after . many months of anxious thought, forti- ! fied by Economy Committees, Taxation Commissions, Tariff Committees, Public Accounts Committees and other advisers—in these circumstances and with ; all tills assistance, Mr Massey has submitted estimates showing actual economies amounting to nine-tenths of one | ! ,e r cent, or about two pence in the i pound.

With revenue down to £26.250,000, the Minister of Finance, according to this week’s statement proposes to j spend nearly two million more than | be receives and actually more than lie spent a couple of years ago when revenue exceeded £34,192.000. The j Budget reveals nothing else so clearly i as it reveals the bankruptcy of ideas

. on finance in the llefonii Cabinet, j which as soon as the savings bequeath i od hv Sir Joseph Ward are exhausted I will be matched by bankruptcy in the j Exchequer. Under the hen-ding “An- ! mini Appropriations,” covering the , expenditures of the Departments, the ! reduction is less than the sum represented in the discontinued “food j bonuses,’' and this does not include ! expenses to be voted in the Supplei mantary Estimates. The railway estij mates provide for a net revenue of j just over a million, whereas two mili lions is required to pay o per cent. l on capital invested. Moreover, the j anticipation of revenue is opposed to the experience of the first three months of the year, the receipts having fallen ut a greater ratio than Mr Massey expects them to rise. The | Post and Telegraph Department is exi pected to spend £316,000 more, alj though traffic has declined and tho j staff is said to have been reduced by many hundreds. On the other side of the account, Customs duties are down ' for only a few pounds more than last year, whereas the new tariff was supposed to bring in an additional two millions. And so we might go on, exf posing one inconsistency after an- | other. The outstanding feature ot the Budget, however, is that with all ■ the talk of economy, in which Minis-

ters have not been illiberal in the matter of self-adulteration, with the disappearance of “food bonuses,” with the cut in the pay of public servants, with the reports of special <*ommittees galore, and, what is more to tho point, ivith the stem reality of a heavily reduced revenue, the public expendtiure, according to the estimates, is to remain practically static^

ary and to remain at the peak. There is nothing in this Budget for the people but no exhortation to “increase production” and an instruction to continue bearing the enormous burden of taxation which cripples their efforts^oj-espondL^^