POST-WAR ECONOMY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 November 1943, Page 4

POST-WAR ECONOMY

PLANS FOR DEVELOPMENT IN THE SOVIET UNI.ON AND CHINA INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION & TRADE Post-war plans of the Soviet Union are concentrated on development of industry, agriculture, and internal resources, with the avowed goal of leading the world in per capita production of many basic necessities and consumer goods, while China is planning' an extensive programme of modernisation and industrialisation to raise her living standards, according to a report on the post-war plans of the United Nations made for the (American)* Twentieth Century Fund by Lewis L. Lorwin. The report, covering the domestic post-war aims of the nations of the British Commonwealth, . the United States, Latin-America, India, and all the other United Nations, has not yet been completed. Advance portions of the sections dealing with China and Russia were summarised recently by a staff correspondent of the “Christian Science Monitor.” Long-range plans in Russia, according to the report, are based on the last peace' time meeting of the All-Union conference of the Communist Party in February, 1941, at which the State Planning Commission was asked to draw up a 15-year plan intended “to surpass the most advanced capitalist countries in per capita production of iron, steel, fuel, electric machines, and consumer goods.” DEVASTATION OF INVASION “The Nazi invasion of Russia on June 22, 1941 . . . destroyed a large part of what the Russians had built up with so much pain and at the cost of great privations since 1928,” it continues. “The costs of the war to the U.S.S.R. will be great not only in terms of factories and buildings destroyed, of ruined towns and villages, of depleted agricultural crops and loss of livestock. The loss of human life ... is enormous. At the end of the war, a large part of the gains of more than a decade of hard work will have been wiped out. In the European part of Russia, at least, the situation may be comparable to that of 1922-1923, when Russia, as a result of war and revolution, was at the lowest depths of economic exhaustion.” On the other hand, the accelerated economic growth of the Asiatic regions of the Soviet Union has compensated to some extent for the destruction in European Russia, the report stresses. “The Soviet Government, even before 1939, was developing a series of industrial regions which had a large degree of self-sufficiency in resources and which could be used as supply bases for the national economy in war or peace,” it 'says. “The population which moved eastward during the war may be kept there, at least for some time, and industries in the Asiatic regions may develop further with local resources and labour.” CHINESE RECONSTRUCTION China’s plans for national reconstruction, the report said, go back to the days before the war and are based on principles laid down by the “Father” of the Republic, Dr Sun Yet-sen. “The main features of the planned post-war development are a rapid industralialisation of China, with emphasis on heavy industries, power plants, chemicals, railway and highway transportation, aviation, and port facilities,” it continues. “Light industries will be of secondary importance. Industrial development will proceed under State guidance and to a large extent under State ownership and direction. The shortage of private industrial capital in China, the absence of a vigorous industrial class, and the large financial problems involved are presumed to necessitate State action and control. Chinese natural scientists estimate that the natural resources of China allow for a substantial degree of industrialisation.” The National Government of Chiang Kai-shek plans aid both to private industry and to the industrial co-opera-tives that have been such a striking development of war time China, the report says. “The plans of the National Government envisage what may be called ‘a mixed economic system’ in which the basic industries will be managed by the State, while the light industries, agriculture and trade will be left to private enterprise and to co-operative associations,” it continues. “This system is often described as State capitalism because of the predominant part which the State will play in operating or controlling the industrial activities of the country. “The purposes which the post-war economy of China is to serve are strategic and social. In accordance with the principles of Sun Yat-sen, as peace becomes more secure, social aims must be accorded increasing importance. The econoinic development of the country is to become more and more a means of improving the ‘livelihood of the people.’ ” The report holds China would welcome the co-operation of foreign capital in the post-war development. “The amount of credits that China can use has been estimated in billions of dollars,” it adds. “China hopes that the largest part of such credit may be supplied by the United States, and lesser portions by other ‘friendly Powers.’ ”