The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 1927.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 August 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 1927.

THE ECONOAIIC CONFERENCE. HTitK Economic Conference at. Geneva did not receive the same publicity or B consideration a.s the Disarmament 8 Conference. The latter overshadowed Htlio former to a great- extent owing to more immediate, pressing and vital in- | ternational interests being involved. * Still, the Economic Conference dealt 3 with questions of no less international ' importance. Regarding the Conference j itself, as a contemporary remarks: ft can ho termed with accuracy “the most I elaborate and ambitious attempt which : has yet been made to examine the 000I Hondo situation of the world anil to seek remedies for the chief evils which aro retarding the growth of human ■ prosperity.” These are the words in which Sir J. A. Salter, Director of the Economic and Financial Section (d the League of Nations describes the character and purpose of this Conference, and they supply a fitting preface to a brief consideration of its ■ activities and their possible or probable j results. So far hack a.s 1929 the T.caj gue of Nations took its first toward iho j economic reconstruction of Europe by j summoning ail international Financial I Conference at Brussels. The chief oli-st-aclo to economic security and progress at the time was the unstable conI dition of the world’s currencies, and till this defect was remedied there was little to lie gained by taking steps in other directions. In 1925 the Council of the League set up ,a preliminary committee of 35 members, representing 21 nations, to take all the required initial steps to inaugurate a Conference for general economic investigation and discussion. This Conference, attended liv 50 different countries, ‘met in Alay. The conclusions of the Conference centre. almost- entirely round one single feature of the European economicsystem. Since peace came, partly lieenuse of conditions indirectly produced by the war, partly because of the emergence of several new and independent nation States, “tariffs are higher, more complex, more numerous, and more frequently changed than before the war.” -Seven thousand miles have been added to frontiers; the number of separate Customs units has risen from 20 to 27 ; and the tariffs on manufactured articles are not less than a third higher. The Conference declared unanimously in favour of “simplification, reduction, and stability” in regard to all forms of Customs duties and other economic and commercial handicaps and harriers. The grounds for the decision reached hv the Conierenee have been stated thus: “That harmful effects upon production and trade result from high and constantly : changing tariffs, that substantial im- ■ provement in economic conditions can be. obtained by increased facilities for i trade and commerce; that tariffs, 1 though within the sovereign jurisdic- i tion of each State, are not a. matter of r purely domestic interest; and that 1 so in o of the causes which have result- t ed in the increase of tariffs and in 1 other trade barriers since the war have t largely disappeared, while others are r diminishing.” For these reasons the I Conference declared definitely tha't t “the time has come to put an end to f the increase in tariffs and to move In the opposite direction.” It would, of course, he a grave mistake to inter- P pret this resolution as a declaration in 7 ‘\ favour of universal Free Trade. The S 1 Conference very wisely disclaimed any intention of arguing about the relative merits of Free Trade and Protection. All that its report insists on is that there has developed, out of and since r)! the war, a system of elaborately ob- Pi structive tariffs and restrictions, which p.

by hampering trade, tend to raise prices and check economic progress; and it is now for the League of Nations and other international organisations to give practical effect, to the Conference's proposals.