The Daily News. THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 1920. RECONSTRUCTING EUROPE.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 April 1920, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 1920. RECONSTRUCTING EUROPE.

Many proposals have been put. forward for granting credits to the distressed countries of Europe, in order that they may purchase the necessaries of life, raw materials with which to restart their manufactures and trades, also rolling stock and railway material to enable them to bring down their natural products to the ports and thus solve their economic problems. It is idle to think that shattered Europe can be rebuilt in a day. No formula, no international artifice can do it. To reconstruct Europe stone must be laid upon stone by long, slow, and heavy labor. The ordeal of toil and endurance cannot be avoided for the rest of this generation. They are powerless to move in the right direction towards economic salvation without help, but there are great difficulties in the way, and so long as the currency conditions of those countries are unsound, bearing no relation to value, the conditions may change for the worse. Financiers are agreed that until the currency conditions have been satisfactorily dealt with, the rehabilitation of those countries seems to be almost impossible. The problem, therefore, becomes international, so that the sooner it is the subject of reasoned deliberation and treatment by all countries acting in concert, the sooner it will be solved, Just &s the higher the average of well-being among the citizens of any nation indicates the wealth of the whole, so is the maximum prosperity of each nation indispensable to the maximum prosperity of all. On all sides it is seen that demand is feverish, yet production is far below normal—taking the world as a whole. In some .regions manufacture cannot be resumed for want of raw material, and tire distressing spectacle is presented of masses of human labor standing idle, or only half employed, for want of raw material. The recent conference of the "Fight, the Famine Council" in London brought to light, many distressing facts as to the condition of Cental Europe. According to the Ans trian delegates, the condif" > n c Vienna is desperate, for not nniv is the much reduced tervitoijc ui,

Austria no longer able to support the Capital (in which nearly half the population is concentrated), but the newly constituted States on the borders have instituted what practically amounts to a food blockade. The effect of the milk supply in Germany, produced by the compulsory cession to France and Belgium of 140,000 cows, is leading to very serious consequences as regards infantile diseases and deaths, while the position in Hungary is very little better. Germany is noit only short of food, but of. coal also, and this handicap is restricting manufactures. Although we may not be expected to have much, if any, sympathy for those who did their utmost to ruin Prance, Belgium, and Servia, and are now suffering the penalties for waging the most unjust war in all time, it is to the interest of the Allies that our late enemies shall not languish. Thewar has bled them dry; they have indemnities to pay, and unless they can manufacture there is little chances of the obligations being met for years to come. Moreover Britain needs European trade and so do the Dominions. Apparently there is only one palliative in sight—combined European action on the widest possible basis for the rehabilitation of the distressed countries by means of long credits for goods. Every country must suit its expenditure to its revenue, for a nation can only meet its foreign liabilities by goods and service. Every country must try to produce all it can, and to eliminate luxuries. This remedy, however, cannot be applied without adequate security being guaranteed, credit being absolutely refused to 5 any country which does not impose all the necessary taxation, practise rigid economy and stop printing paper money. There are obvious difficulties in the way of ensuring that raw material supplied on credit will be legitimately used and the money paid in due course. The countries of Central Europe are not to be trusted, and therein lies the chief stumbling block, especially in view of the internal upheavals and the risk of repudiation of liabilities. No such problems have ever faced the civilised world as those which demand rational settlement at the present time. The reconstruction of Europe is admittedly a'matter of supreme urgency, but the means whereby it can be accomplished have yet-to be devised. It is not a case to be met by charity, but by practical and organised methods that will enable the distressed peoples to see daylight in their present darkness and encourage them to work as never before on reliabiliation. The legacy of the war is more difficult to handle than was the 'struggle itself, but the combined wisdom of Europe should be able to find a solution of the problem of reconstruction.