Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1938. FAIR PLAY ALL ROUND.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 November 1938, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1938. FAIR PLAY ALL ROUND.

■RESIDES intimating, in a statement after the recent Labour caucus, that the Government “is going straight ahead without any change in the personnel of the Cabinet whatevei the Prime 'Minister made some references to policy Which a,re not without interest. He spoke of an impending revision o the incidence of taxation and said, amongst other things, that production must be carried on in New Zealand on the most advanced lines, and that “there must be security oi .lose engaged in industry, and that meant owners as well as workers. ’ ’

We cannot separate them (Mr Savage added). They will sink or swim together. The problems of all classes must be listened to, with a view to assistance being given.

'As a statement of intention this will be welcomed, and the carrying into effect of the intention expressed will be welcomed still'more heartily. The fair treatment of all sections of the population is at once demanded as a matter of justice and is an essential condition of safe and assjired social progress.

The Prime Minister of course is right when he says that the people of this country must have an opportunity to produce more and to bring about a better financial and economic balance There can be no more promising approach to the problem of consolidation to which Mr "Savage referred than a calm study of the problems of production, as a. first step towards shaping a policy under which fair, relative regard will be paid to all the interests concerned. The ultimate test of a policy of the kind is the ability of industries to expand, and prosper. A policy, for example, which conferred present benefits on wage-earners at the cost of bringing conditions of arrested development, or decline, on industry in general, or on important sections of industry, obviously must work, out badly, in the end, tor wage-earners as. well'as for other sections of the population.

Our immediate position in New Zealand admittedly is made difficult by our extreme dependence On oversea markets and by the fact that our products have to meet world competition in those markets. On the other’ hand, we have gieat oppoitunities for internal industrial development, and our possibilities of progress along these lines are not limited by any means as seriously as, some exponents of old-fashioned and obsolete economic ideas would have us believe. We are living in an age in which much that used to pass for unchallengeable economic science has been shot to pieces.

One observation made by the Prime Minister which deserves particular attention is that he thought there should be a greater proportion of the people engaged directly m industry. There is much to’ support an opinion that scope exists in New Zealand for a far more effective organisation and application of labour than has yet been achieved, and that by improved organisation economic and other benefits might be secured that are not to be obtained in any other way. One great, and overshadowing need in this country today is that the whole range of costs, including taxation, should be reviewed, not merely from the standpoint of giving relief to tins or that section, but with a view to the total outcome and effect.

HERR HITLER’S MISGIVINGS.

f)NLY an element of monomania will account for the attitude V taken up by Herr Hitler with reference to British rearmament. Under his leadership, Germany has been militarised and armed as never before and yet he is reported to have informed I the British Government that he regards rearmament speeches in Britain unfavourably, that the Munich.agreement, was concluded with a view to a limitation of armaments, “and that since Germany did not intend to use arms against Britain it was unnecessary to impose the burden of large-scale rearmament on. the British people.’’

Whether the Fuehrer has any idea of entering into negotiations for the limitation of armaments is extremely doubtful. In. his speech at Weimar, reported yesterday, he appears at once to have invited such negotiations and to have poured scorn on them. He is certainly counting without his host, however, if he expects the British people, or responsible, leaders of any party in Britain, to accept the assurances he offers in place of adequate measures of defence. No limitation- pact would be worth anything if it did not provide for a .very considerable reduction of Germany’s present armaments.

On the other hand, as an excuse for refusing to negotiate a pact of that kind, Herr Hitler’s criticism of Mr Winston Churchill and oilier ptiblic men in Britain is as unconvincing as it well could be. Nothing is better established than that an overwhelming weight of public opinion in Britain and'throughout the Empire would support a genuine limitation of armaments and the policy of peace such a limitation would connote. The Fuehrer’s declared fear that “a democratic shuffle” might establish in Britain a Government intent on destroying Germany is a fairy tale for children. It has no reference to realities. On the other hand, in a book on which he is still drawing heavy annual royalties, Herr Hitler has advocated the establishment by brute force of an overshadowing German hegemony in Europe. The strongest utterances of the British public men whom he criticises so bitterly are of milk and water quality in comparison with his own bloodthirsty propaganda. It must be added that within the limits of his opportunities, Herr Hitler has carried into effect the policy of' ruthless aggression expounded in ‘‘Mein Kampf.”

The period in wliicji Germany was treated unjustly under the Treaty of Versailles is over and done with, today she has an open opportunity of co-operating with other nations on equitable and mutual terms in re-establishing the system ol collective security. Herr Hitler’s leading idea on the subject appears to be, however, that other nations should disarm while Germany remains armed to the teeth.