Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 1940. PRESIDENTIAL PEACE HOPES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 January 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 1940. PRESIDENTIAL PEACE HOPES

AT the stage to which it has been carried what has been called the “Roosevelt peace offensive” may be summed up as a model of political and diplomatic discretion. Mr Roosevelt was'reported yesterday to have informed a group oi churchmen who interviewed him that his peace objectives were “at present ideals rather than proposals.”, It was added, however, that observers in Washington believe that these objectives are in definite shape “and are withheld because it is felt that a successful peace effort at present is impossible.”

Tt has been affirmed by one well-informed correspondent, Mr Erwin D. Canham, of the Washington Bureau of the. “Christian Science Monitor” that, “for the months that lie immediately ahead, it seems more than likely that the President will do everything in his power to search for a peace basis. According to Mr Canham, who claims that authority for his statements on the subject comes from . ‘a dozen diverse, tangible and intangible, sources in Washington, Mr Roosevelt wants to follow the example of his illustrious cousin, the late President. Theodore Roosevelt, who sponsored the conference at Portsmouth, U.S.A., in 1905 at which the treaty of peace terminating the Russo-Japanese War was negotiated,

and act as mediator or prime mover in a peace conference effort. He wishes to round out his “place in history” with a major contribution to world pacification. If he could lead such a peace effort —without having to submit any treaty thereafter to the Senate—he would undoubtedly retire to private life, forget all about the thiid term, and let his successor wrestle with various domestic problems.

Excluding the possibility of a third term, Ihe time available to Mr Roosevelt for the attainment of his “peace objectives” is somewhat limited. The Presidential election is to take place in November next. In accordance with custom, the Presidency will not change hands until the March following, but the period between the election and the installation of a new President does not lend itself to bold initiative of any kind.

President Roosevelt’s position, however, is that of one who awaits an opportunity that has not yet arisen. The American Government and people are in full sympathy with the Allies and there is no question, it may be hoped, of any attempt by an American leader to promote peace proposals which would embarrass the Allies and play into the hands of the Nazi dictatorship. The best-informed observers in Washington are said to consider possible, however, “some internal readjustment in Germany, not necessarily sensational, and the sudden emergence of a negotiable basis lor peace.” To speculations of this kind, it is said, President Roosevelt lends an eager ear.

Whether internal readjustments in Germany of an nnsensational character would do anything to open the way to peace may be doubted. It is obvious, too, that the Russo-German partnership holds far-reaching possibilities for evil and that it may create new and serious problems in the Baltic region and elsewhere. Tt might be unduly pessimistic, however, to dismiss as entirely chimerical the hopes of internal readjustment in Germany which are said to be entertained in Washington. The Allies are shaping their policy and preparations on the assumption that a long and bitter struggle is in prospect, but certainly will, not desire to continue the war should the way be opened to peace on just terms. Should events take that course, President Roosevelt may yet be able 1o play the part of mediator to which he aspires. It is, of course, to be recognised that in the right conditions he would exercise a powerful influence. Whether these conditions are likely to arisejiefore his present term of office expires is another and at best an open question.

A FELLOWSHIP FOR HARMONY ,

r pilE establishment at Victoria College of a research fellowship for the investigation and study of social relations in industry is an enterprise upon which Mr Henry Valder, of Hamilton, whose generosity makes it possible, and those associated with him are to be congratulated most heartily. That the research thus contemplated is greatly needed, is or should be sufficiently apparent. In this country and in most others, the term “industrial relations” is almost- a synonym for an armed truce, varied at- times in some important, industries by conflict. Widely as it prevails, this state of affairs quite obviously is unworthy of a civilised community and opens poor prospects for the future.

Mr Valder’s action —that of an. industrialist of long experience who has made commendable efforts to promote the cause of peace in. industry by practical applications of the partnership principle—is correspondingly to be welcomed. Tlis broad aims are defined clearly in his letter to the Victoria College Council offering to endow a fellowship in social relations in industry. lie says in that letter, for example:—•

I have been associated for the greater part of my life with commerce and industry and it has long been my opinion that the great assistance which industry receives from science and scientific method on the purely material side has no counterpart in the side of human relations. I became convinced, as the result of many years of observation and experience, that some agency was required to grapple with the subject of social relations in industry, and some machinery to make it effective. Every year makes me more convinced that the need is urgent.

In making possible a methodical and dispassionate study of the causes of unrest and conflict in industry and of the means that might be adopted of substituting harmony for that unhappy state of affairs, Mr Valder is rendering a signal service to the community.

While the problems involved are complex and difficult, il is not in doubt that there is room for a transformation of industrial relationships by which all concerned would benefit greatly. It. is a matter of progressing, inevitably no doubt by stages, from a slate of confusion to one of understanding, and of co-operation, based upon and made possible by that understanding.

In order that a belter industrial order may be developed, it is necessary Io study not only the relationships between employers and employees, important as these are, Ind those between producers as a body and consumers. Not only in the action taken at times by trade unions, but in many other ways it is often possible to perceive, in this country and elsewhere, a failure on the part of both employers and employees Io appreciate the extent to which their own real interests are identified with those of the body of consumers. It is one of the peculiarities of our economic life that although we are all consumers we are virtually without protective organisation in that capacity. As it bears on the question of real wages and in other .ways, the position of the consumer is worthy of particular attention in an investigation of industrial relations,