DESIRE FOR PEACE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 April 1939, Page 5

DESIRE FOR PEACE

PRIME MINISTER PRAISES MR ROOSEVELT MORE MEN OF KIND NEEDED IN WORLD. UNDERLYING CAUSES OF WAR. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “Everyone with the slightest desire for the peace of the world and the welfare of the human race can do no less than approve every word President Roosevelt has uttered,” said the Prime Minister, Mr Savage, when commending yesterday the ’ President’s statement asking the dictators to pledge themselves not to attack 30 independent States in Europe and Asia. It was a pity, said the Prime Minister, that the world did not have a few more men like Mr Roosevelt. He added that he thought President Roosevelt’s message was an outstanding statement which should mean something to the nations of the world. The President had suggested that misunderstandings should be discussed. He did not ask people to remain as they were, and it was not too much to ask and to expect that representatives of the various nations should meet to discuss the problems that faced them. TRADE RELATIONSHIPS. “These things will have to be settled in any case if we can ever get peace,” said Mr Savage. “People do not fight for the love of it. There are underlying causes, and if the representatives of the nations can meet to talk about them, there is a chance of removing those causes. It is proper trade relationships that are needed more than anything else, and people condemn what they call economic nationalism without putting anything in its place. “The trend today is toward each individual nation doing as much as it can for its own people. That is being forced on them simply because no one will give a lead in the direction of meeting to discuss economic problems, and get down to realities. “I think we will discover that tariffs are not the solution of any problem, and it is no use talking about freer trade under present conditions, because there are other things to be considered, and you cannot consider them on the battlefield. We have to consider them round a table. Nations are concerned about protecting their standard of life; for that reason they have tariffs and other forms of protection. GETTING ROUND A TABLE. "I want to emphasise again that it would be better still if the nations got round a table and got more uniformity in their industrial conditions and freer trade than exists at present. I know that there are other things to be considered, some of which may not be popular, to make trade move more freely. To expand trade you have to expand the people’s pay envelopes. I know that in certain circles that will not be popular, but it is a plain fact. “That is only one of the aspects of the same subject that could be and should be discussed round a table, rather than that nations should take part in a race to increase armaments that must ultimately lead to chaos greater probably than that which resulted from the 1914-18 conflict. “Finally, let me say, more power to President Roosevelt. It is a pity we did not have a few more men like him.”