The Daily News. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1918. THE WORLD FAMINE.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 February 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1918. THE WORLD FAMINE.

The longer the war lasts the greater will be the strain throughout the civilised world caused by the great inroads upon raw materials and foodstuffs as well as by financial exhaustion. Even now the problem has assumed vast dimensions, and its growth will he expedited in an iver-inereasing ratio until sufficient time elapses, after the war M over, in which a general recovery can take place. When it is considered that during tlio war the wastage is colossal, not only of material, but of man power, it will be seen that while the materia/ is decrc.i-ing at a very rapid rate there is also an appreciable diminution in human agencies for replacing the products so lavishly disposed of during the struggle. Sooner or later, ths appalling" calamity that is now oppressing the nations will come to an end, and then will come the time when the belligerent countries will have to face depleted resources, arid possibly the horrors ot acute shortage of food, clothing and other necessaries. The position will be aggravated by the very high prices of goods of all kinds, and intensified by the disinclination of the men who have borne the strain and stress of the fighting line to settle down to a iurthci severe struggle as workers or producers, tt is inevitable there must be a tremendous rebound of elastic humanity after the war, so that it is of vital importance to the welfare of the nations that they shall not be taken unaware. A strong note of warning and advice lias been sounded by a writer in the Contemporary Review (Mr. Sidney Webb) wiio deals with this post-war problem seriously and practically prefacing his observations thus:

"The problem, however it may be deferred, will come upon tlie statesmen with startling suadenness. .Uauy of their finespun imaginations will disappear mto thin air. They will, for instance, with regard to imports and exports, iind it quite impracticable simply to leave trade to the unrestricted and unguided enterprises of merchants and shipowners eager only to make profits. The Central Powers will certainly not be able to carry out their rumored project of buying up all the available raw materials that neutral countries have to dispose of. It will ibe found equally impractical to put in operation the policy understood to be outlined in the vague resolutions of the Paris Economic Conference of the Allied Governments, to which the 'United States have never accded, of a hostile boycott of the Central Powers. At the close of the war what the various Governments will he faced with will not be opportunities of enriching themselves at the cost of their enemies, hut the imminent danger of famine, in one country or another, with a calamitous deficiency of some of the principal foodstuffs, such as cereals and meat, threatening, quite possibly, extensive local starvation; with huge deficiencies in most countries in such materials as the metallic ores, coal, timber, hides, oil, wool, rubber, potash, etc., without which civil employment of the demobilised millions cannot be resumed, and with sueli a scarcity of merchant shipping and railway waggons, and such a dilapidation of all the ways of land transport as seriously to aggravate all thr. shortage of cnuuooditiea."

There is nothing extravagant or 01" n alarming nature about these striking views, hut there j s certainly mucli matter for anxious i;nd caret 11 .roiir.M"-.-tion. Tlie loreear-t 01 Slate control over prices lor some time alter 1 lie war 1.tremely l.kely *o materialise. AV'j have seen how during the struggle there has been ..11 imperative need for preventing exploitation ''■> v those who are always on the look-out to make their pile at the expense of the community, and it will certainly lie the same after peace is declared. Theie U that sordid trait in a section of the human race which leads unscrupulous men to fatten 011 the misfortunes of the community, and it is only the power of the .State that can protect the intended victims of greed and avarice- It is, therefore, apparent that the Government of every nation must, for some time after peace, control prices and exports, and not allow merchant shipping to earn high freights by conveying goods elsewhere, without first, providing for its own needs. At the same time there must be a concentration on export trade in order to,pay for the imports anci meet the huge payments arising out of the war. This question of liabilities naturally lea'ds to a consideration of the possibility of a money famine, as the result of which people may not only lie hungry, but also devoid of money to buy the food and materials they need or pay the freights for importing. Thus arises the prospect of sliding from an acute military struggle into an equally acute economical campaign, for each nation will certainly do the best it can for its own people. In discussing the question of what will be needed to deal with this economic problem, Mr. Webb considers it essential for each nation to assure itself that the Interests of its manufacturers, traders and consumers shall, as far as possible, he safeguarded: that the Allied Governments shall tftko steps to protect their raw materials from any and every form of economic aggression by the Central Powers; and that there shall be found an International Commission for revictualling Europe, which will become the first organ of the League of Nations, in which war must find an end. These, of course, are only general principles, but. in view of the exhaustion that must follow after the war is ended there is very grave danger in allowing vitally important economic matters to drift and cause irreparable disaster. To avoid this it is imperative to take time by the forelock, for if ever there was . an occasion when it behoved the world's rulers and governors to paiise and think it is this present hour.