NOT HOPEFUL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 320, 6 September 1932, Page 5

NOT HOPEFUL

(British Offieial Wireless)

WORLD CONFERENCE MOST IMPORTANT SUBJECTS EXCLUDED FROM AGENDA TARIFFS AND WAR DEBTS .

Rec. Sept. 5, 5.5 p.m. Rugby, Septemher 4. The announcement from Geneva that six representatives have been nominated by the financial and economic organisations of the League of Nations on the preparatory sub-com-mittee, which will probably meet next week, has direefed fresh attention tpwards the tasks before the projected conference. The subject matter of the conference, however, is not yet clearly dafined. The Times reealls the American Government, in its agreement to take part, stated categorically that the invitation excluded from the agenda any discussion of tariffs as well as war debts. The Times says that if . tariffs are not to be discussed the extension to the international field of the Ottawa type of agreements, which was anticipated by Mr. S. M. Bruce in his recent broadeast address from Washington, is clearly out of the question, and it is difficult to imagine any results from the World Conference which would justify the hopes expressed by Mr. Baldwin and his colleagues on their return from Ottawa. The solution of the monetary problem would be of substantial benefit to world trade, but monetary systems cannot function in- vacuo. They are only machinery for facilitating the interchange of goods and s'ervices. There is little to be expected from any monetary reform so long as the nations pursue policies preventing, or at any rate hampering, this interchange. Nothing can be gained, and much may he lost by attempting to exclude from the discussion tariffs and war debts, the very problems which call most urgently for .solution.