LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 214, 4 May 1932, Page 4

LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

Within the past few weeks there have been signs, no more, perhaps, than straws in the wind, but still recognisable signs, that the worst of the depression has been reached, if not actually passed. To pretend that all difficulties have been conquered, or even that new ones are not likely to arise would be worse than foolish. The winter still ahead is certain to be a hard one for most people and many will possibly sulfer in one way or

another more severely than they have yet done. There is, however, quite definitely, a gleam of light visible through the murk ahead. The brightest point of this g"leam is the situation in Great Britain. It is fashionable, especially in the Oversea Enipire, to talk of, and even to magnify, the slenderness of the tie which holds the British Commonwealth of Nations together. The fact is, however, that that tie is an extremely s.trong one and its strength is still centred in the Mother Country. The truth of this has been proved time and again, both in time of troubie and in periods of success, and the present depression has proved it again. All through last year the position of the Old Country grew steadily worse, due, as it is now possible to see, partly to an unsound economic poliey .on the part of the Government, and partly to a well organised, or more correctly, two 'well organised attacks on Great Britain's position as the reeognised tinancial centre of the world. This combination led to the dangerous crisis of August and September last and only the sterling fighting qualities and instinctive loyalty of the British people averted disaster. Out of that crisis have come several valuable lessons. It has helped the British people to re-discover their threatened self-confiderice, and more important, it has taught them to recognise as never before — not even during the Great War — the real meaning and value of the Empire. The people of the great Dominions also have learned something in these directions. The effects of the British crisis were immediately felt in an intensificatiqn of their own difficulties. The result has been the awakening throughout the Empire of a new and deeper sense of interdependence which is about to, find its first expression on a major scale— so Britons all over the world hope and believe — at the Ecoriomic Conference at Ottawa. In Ihe light of the immediate past, it is justifiable to anticipate that, just as the Dominions have had to shar.e her troubles with the Motherland, so may they expect to recover with her their prosperity, provided, of course, that they niake the necessary pffort to set their own houses in order and that the steps they fake conform within reasonable limits to the obviously sound ecopomic princjples adopted by her. In recent weeks it has been possiblq to believe that once 'more Great Britain has won a major victory, that she. will shortly emerge triumphant from her troubles. Her responsible statesmen and financiers, the most skilled and perhaps the most cautious in the world, have with increasing frequency adopted an optimistic tone in sfiarp contrast to their attitude of a few. months ago. The most recent ; to c'omnrit iimself in this way is Mr. Walter Runciman, Pre-! sident of ..the. Board of Trade tand a member of the British Cabinet, ancl one of London's leading business m'en, who, as reported; by cable published yes.terday, said definitely: "The attempts to replace. London as the. financial centre of the world have failed. I have no hesitation in staking whatever reputation I.have in saying that ,'we wjll be far better off.at the end of 1932 than at the end of 1931." In these circumstances New Zealanders,.anjd ithe people. of the other- Empire countries, are justified,.pTovided they do not permit .their own efforts to slacfeeh, ;in looking f or ward with- cpnfidence to better .times in.the near future and in saying and believing 4hat the worst of the depression is past.