ECONOMIC RECOVERY

Taranaki Daily News, 24 December 1921, Page 11

ECONOMIC RECOVERY

THE RELIEF GIVEN BY DISARMAMENT. Wellington, Dec. 16. Said Mr. Harold Beauchamp to-day at the half-yearly meeting of the Bank of New Zealand: There is a menace against which Britain and the United States have to be on their guard. Messrs. Samuel Montagu and Co., the well-known bullion brokers, in their circular dated London, August ,25, remark: “The development of the commerce and of the well-being of many countries is arrested, and their people impoverished by the heavj’ burden of taxation, which is largely increased by military expenditure. Besides-the vast sums of money which are thus dissipated through unproductive channels, millions of men are taken from industry and become consumers instead of producers. The United States Congress has voted 836,000,000 dollars for military and naval purposes, Gr-.-at Britain £193,000,000, while France has to provide nearly five md’iards francs for an army of nearly 800,000 men and a milliard for naval expenditure. Many of the nations, whether solvent or hopelessly bankrupt, continue to pour out their money like water on military and naval establishments, while projects for the bettering of the people are starved for want of funds, and debts remain unpaid. Germany, however, furnishes a notable exception, as in accordance with the provisions of the Peace Treaty she is relieved of the incubus of a heavy expenditure on an army and navy, which formerly weighed down her finances, and she is now free to devote money and men to the improvement of her industries. If it be realised that the annual payments by Germany for interest and sinking fund on the M 50,000,000.000 gold Reparation Bonds amount to about 713,000,000 dollars, and that the sum appropriated for the fiscal year 19211’922 by the United States Congress for military and naval purposes is nearly 836.000.000 dollars, the full significance of the boon to Germany will be understood/’

Under such conditions Germany must become a powerful economic unit before many years pass unless the Vnations agree to disarmament and release men and money for agricultural and industrial development. When one considers the stupendous Josses of human life and money, as well as the untold misery and suffering occasioned by the Great War, all will agree that no avenue should be left unexplored in an honest endeavor to find means to prevent a recurrence of such a world tragedy. In addressing the House of Commons in December, 1920, Mr. Lloyd George estimated the losses of all the beligerents as follows: In casualties, 30,000,000; in deaths, 9,000.:WJ0; in money, directly £50,000,000,000, and indirectly, £07,000,000,000. Surely these figures make an eloquent end touching appeal in support of National disarmament. In the circumstance, we cannot but hail with the deepest satisfaction the efforts which are now being made at the disarmament conference in Washington to arrive at an understanding among the great Powers, which will admit of an immediate and large reduction of this crushing and exhausting expenditure upon armaments. The relief which such an understanding will give to the whole civilised world at the present time, staggering as it is, for the most part, under the huge burden of enormous liabilities incurred through militarism, which has wrought nothing but destruction, will be of inestimable value.

Let us hope that the arrangements concluded at the Conference will forna the ground-work of a foundation upon which the statesmen of to-day and of the future will fashion, either through the agency of the League of Nations or through some other channel, a Council or Court of Arbitration through which international differences may be adjusted and settled, so as to render impossible any future resort to force of arms. Three-quarters of a century ago a gifted American —Longfellow, pre-emin-ently the poet of Anglo-American ideals and sentiment —wrote in a spirit which it is to be hoped will prove to have been prophetic: Were half the power which fills the world with terror, Were half the wealth, bestowed on camps and courts, Given to redeem the human mind from error, There were no need of arsenals or forts: The warrior’s name would be a name abhorred I And every nation that should lift again Its hand against a brother, on its forehead Would wear for evermore the curse of Cain! Let us hope and believe that this faroff vision of America’s greatest poet is about to materialise, and that, through the initiative taken by the American nation in this beneficent world movement, the peace of all nations may be ultimately established on a firm and lasting basis.