POINTS OF VIEW FROM THE WORLD'S PRESS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 281, 22 July 1932, Page 7

POINTS OF VIEW FROM THE WORLD'S PRESS

COMMENTS ON CURRENT TOPICS

EMPIRE TEST. Spectator (London) : If the Mother Country and the Dominions g o to Ottawa each expecting- to reap immediate material advantages, the soreness of disappointment will be a danger to good relations. If each member goes with spoken or unspoken cry of "For ourselves first; for the Empire second," why should any deserve to gain at all? They must put the Empire first and all these things shall be added unto them, for they are partners in the Empire; as partners, not rivals, they must discuss their business; and as partners they may claim to share the advantages that come from their discussion. As partners, yes, and partners in a family business/ but business relations are the severest test of family affection. This is a caution of which we would remind, day in day, everyone throughout the Empire whose duty it is to make any of the preparations for Ottawa. If one of the delegates at Ottawa, thinking to do his duty by those who sent him, tries to get the better of another delegate, the rift in the family is opened. * * « GENEVA — LAUSANNE — OTTAWA London Times: Empire Day this year finds the British nations anxiously awaiting the outcome of three great conferences. Trade will not revive without confidence; confidence will not be restored until the existing political tcnsion is relieved; and there can be no prospect of relieving that tension until there is an agreement regulating armaments on principles accepted by all and applicable to all countries alike. Ottawa has this advantage over Lausanne, that the Government participating and the countries they represent are united by a common allegiance and a common tradition, and are accustomed to work together for the common benefit of the whole Empire. They have now to lay the foundations for a system of mutual help which will enable them to withstand the worst shocks following from a possible failure at Lausanne. In his last public speech over a hundred years ago Pitt made the proud boast that "England has saved herself by her exertions, and will, I trust, save Europe by her example." After the Ottawa Conference the Empire Governments must be able to claim with equal confidence that the British Empire has saved itself by its exertions, and will, by its example, save the world. * * * BRITAIN AND EUROPE. London Daily Express: Great Bl'itain's troubles lie in and proceed from Europe, which has drained her through the centuries of how many millions of lives and what uneountablo wealth. The British people mean to be free of this incubus. They mean to regain their liberty of action and to conduct themselves with friendship towards all nations, and to engage in entangling alliances and agreements with none. And they mean to take their own measure of their liabilities and to provide against them as they think fit. The first step to the recovery of our political freedom must be to make an end of this farce of conference after conference at Geneva and Lausanne — future political tea-parties that end in nothing but strife, distract our statesmen from the Empire, and are proving the dearest investment we ever made. * * * * THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE. Montreal Star: If Roosevelt is nominated and the party gets behind him and builds him up dgain — and the West rallies to him .behind Senator Norris — then there is lilcely to be a pretty fight in the autumn. If the depression still lasts, Hoover is bound to suffer heavily. If his newest remedies should seem to be lifting the clouds, then he might easily romp in as the genius who finally solved the insoluble problem. Nothing that Roosevelt has done yet seems likely to indicate him as a Moses to lead a distressed people out of the wilderness. But the Opposition party are bound to profit by a continuation of the bad times. Hoover will be punished for promising prosperity and then not delivering. But a revival in business by October might easily re-elect him. . THE OTTAWA CONFERENCE National Review (London): As the date of the Ottawa Conference approaches, the vast importance of the meeting is increasingly seen. Everything has conspired to show the people of Great Britain, and of the Dominions, the way in which salvation lies. The calamitous drop in prices, the insecurity of markets, the impending deficits in various European states, and even the suspected dishonesty of the great Continental concerns at present being examined, all have contributed to provo to us that the business we can contrive to do at home, or with our kinsmen in the Dominions, is the best for us and the best for them. »}» *{■ V EMPIRE SETTLEMENT AND OTTAWA. London Morning Post: We have to prove to the Dominions that it is to their interest to broaden their policy on a foundation of inter-Empire preference. This does not apply merely to goods and to produce. The Federation of British industries rightly insists upon the importance of people. In 1913 we sent 285,046 emigrants to the Overseas Empire; by 1931 the number had dropped to 27,151. The flow must be started again — to their advantage as much as ours. There can be no thought of dumping either in people or in goods; any arrangement that is likely to be acceptable to the Dominions must be as much to their advantage as to ours. The bargain piust equally benefit both sides.

NO AMERXCVAN RESPONSE— TILL NOVEMBER. Montreal Star: Rightly or wrongly, th'e American people feel that in failing to pay the war debts the rest of the world is welshing on them. That they are in the midst of a worlddepression only makes them more anxious to collect the cash. That they and the French have been choked almost to death with the gold that they wrung out of reparations has not yet become a popular American doctrine. And the time when statesmen are anxious to do a little unpopular missionary work is not during a Presidential campaign. Until after the November elections in the United States, alas, war debts are likely to be treated as political ammunition for the one side or the other. After November we may expect them to take on their true perspective — which is largely , economic. * -i' * * REPARATIONS. j Providence Jounal: Whatever new ! arrangements are destined to appear, ' a fresh adjustment of some character cannot be delayed much longer. With the Gerrnan Government apparently very strongly committed to the doctrine that reparations payrnents in the future, if they are to be made at all, shall be on a substantially lower basis, J the days of the Young Plan are seemingly numbered, especially inasmuch as the British and Italian Governments are inclined to sympathise with the German desira for further revision. BRITAIN AND THE EMPIRE. London Sunday Times: While this country cannot segregate itself from the difficulties of Europe, neither can it alford to look to Europe alone. If Europe were to collapse our efforts elsewhere would be endangered, but meanwhile we must build up for ourselves a new framework of trade outside. For the first time the economic opportunities of the Empire have a definite chance of being realised: Ottawa is the key to a new door which may open the way to a new prosperity H= $ * * THE COMFORTING ASPECT. London Observer: America holds the key to world recovery. Black as is the present position, an important change has taken place in the last six months. On Deeember 10 last Mr. Garner, then the newly-elected Speaker, declared that the House would not ratify the Hoover moratorium "before we have some information on it." Only six months ago the obstacle was apathy and ignorance of the danger. That obstacle is removed. America is roused. When aroused, America is capable of spectacular movement. ❖ =:= * if INDUSTRY'S TURN. Washington Post: The Government has carried the war upon depression about as far as it can go. It is impossible for Unele Sam to for6e industry into a revival. The means of recovery have been placed within the grasp of private enterprise. It remains for business leaders to mobilise their strength and take advantage of idle money to resume normal operations. Now that industry has reasonable assurance of sound financial backing there should be no further hesitation. =:= * * THE ANGLO-IRISH QUESTION Hugh A. Law in the Fortnightly (London) : I suspect that this controversy is now being foreed upon us, not so much because of any lingering hatred of England — I can believe that Mr. De Valera is sincere in professing to desire friendly relations with that country — as because of domestic F'assions aroused during the debates on the treaty and the subsequent Civil War.^ For to admit that our existing constitution — the oath notwithstanding — has proved itself a success would be to eonfess that Griffith, Collins and Cosgrave had from the outset the right end of the stick and that the Civil War was, as so many of us have always thought, a criminal folly. Thus Ir eland is now in peril of imitating the dog in the fable who dropped his bone into the water while growling at his own image. ❖ '\t * EMPIRE TRADE. Le Soleil, Quebec: For years the trade of Britain and other parts of ' the Empire has been unfavourable to her. This state of things cannot endure indefinitely. Above all, the Old Country cannot go on paying for the luxury of breaking her commercial relations with the rest of the world with the object of only doing business with the Empire from which' at present she is only realising losses. Here is the crux of the problem, and we are afraid that it may be difiicult to solve it at one conference, where there will undoubtedly be more fine words than practical effects. This is not what we want.^ But it is just as well to foresee the difficulties, in order to prenare to overcome them. There is no'use in optimistic outburst, 'if we are to experience another fiasco through a lack of serious reflection and a sensible economic point of view. * !!•- SOUTH AFRICA AND OTTAWA. Cape Times: Th'e coyly benevolent attitude of the Government toward the Ottawa Conference, expressed by Mr. Havenga in hs reply on the Budget, was stated again by the Prime Minister in the House of Assembly on Monday night. Our country, in the hands of these two Ministers, is sidling up to the conference as gingerly as an unbroken colt, longing to taste the piece of sugar in the extended hand of its trainer, but afraid of the saddle which it suspects is to be clamped on to its back.