Evening star., 1932-07-24
UY VISCOUNT CECIL
OF CHELWOOD.

nations Stop the clrculation
of goods and money IN the IN
i ternational body, and IN eacn
member slow death sets IN.
That is precisely what Is happening
today.
Those of us who preach in season
and out Of season the cause OF 20.
cutting down of armaments 1or tne
common good are often dismissed as
ideahsts out Of touch with the realtles
of life. Are we? Let us see.
Between February, 1881, ana rep
ruary, 1932-things are even worse now
the total volume OF lnternatlonai
commerce shrank by about oo per CEN
In one year the edifice of world trace:
laboriouSly built up by century OF
industrial development, cracked from
top to bottom and half OF 1t fell 10 the
ground Within the last year the num-
ber of those who are without any EN-
ployment has risen to 25,0CO,0O0 Mean
while the annual expenditure OF the
nations upon military armaments Is
now estimated at over f9OO, 0OO,0oo.
In Germany one in four OF the popu-
lation of the capital is out OF Work.
Practically no transactions IN 1orelsn
exchange are permitted. Germany can
leave their country only after paying
what most Of them cannot af1oro
Salaries, wages and rents nave oeeh
arbitrarily reduced again and again.
taxes have been doubled; unemploy-
ment allowances have been cut TO the
bone. And between the battling NAL
contents-Nazis and Communlsts-the
government strives 70 maintain order
and prevent the bankruptcy OF the
Reich by a system Of DEGREES whose
severity is distinguishable only IN de-
gree from that of the Russian dictator
ship.
European Farmers Ruined.
The farmer of Eastern and Central
Europe is ruined. Hungary Greece. Greece anu no
Bulgaria cannot pay the interest on
the loans which they contracted unoer
the auspices of the League OF Nations
because Of their inability to buy the
foreign currency in which to pay them.
In the United States an army OF un-
EMPLOYED veterans has descended upon
Washington, and behind them lurk or
10 millions of unemployed without the
same appeal to patriotic sentiment TO
help them, and Congress has had to
struggle with an unprecedented deficit
in the Federal budget.
France, more self-supportlng tnan
other countries, has seen beth her I'M
ports and exports fan by 81 per cent
within the last two years. To take
only one industry, the textile industry,
upon which the prosperity OF the North
depends, the value of its exports has
shrunk in three years from IL d1;ooo 11inr mn,
lion francs to less than 5000 million
francs. while 20 per cent Of the SOC, 600
or more workers who derive their livell-
hood from the looms have become un-
employed.
The cotton industry of Great Britain.
though somewhat relieved in the last
wear owing to the British abandonment
of the gold standard, still had n per
cent of its operatives unemployed at
the beginning of this year, as against
about IL per cent three years ago.
British exports of coal in 1881 were
$4,000 tons less than in 1880.
Germany's exports are 49 per cent
below those of 1890; her imports are
down by Sc per cent The exports OF
the United States have dropped 63 per
cent and her imports So per cent.
Spain, Poland. Rumania and Canaoa;
to quote only chance examples, are all
buying from various countries between
go and 10 per cent less than they dlo
two years ago. Three-quarters OF the
whole OF the export trace VI opd1AA oiAo
Hungary have disappeared.
League Experts Figure.
These facts are no mere estimates
the figures quoted are those offlcially
adopted the other day by the Economic
Committee of the League of Nations
a body of experts, most of whom hold
high positions in their own countries,
TIE salient fact is that unlike previous
economic depressions the evil is world
wide and can be efectually dealt with
only by worldwide remedies
Yet the governments of the countries
concerned have wholly failed to reailze
this truth; they do not seem 10 ap--
preciate that their object should be not
to promote the power Of competition
between one country and another, put
to increase the total volume OF world
trade. The difficulties in each country
are so great that governments are
driven to adopt immediate palllatlves'
however bad their ultimate erect, as the
drunkard hopes by more alcohol 10
obliterate the consequences OF past eH-
cess. AS the members OF the Economic
Committee themselves confess: Day
after day they themselves are led by
those very measures which. when met
together at Geneva today, they find to
have such small advantages and such
serious drawbacks
These measures may be summed up as
the principle OF "sauve qul peut. Every
government, faced with the imlminence
of an unfavorable trade balance. and
feeling that it could wait no longer for
international action to save 1t, mas
rushed I'D the barricades against goods
from abroad and has imposed reStrlc-
ton after restriction upon the move
ment of money. In the last few months
alone 16 countries, including my own,
have added to their import duties or
raised their tariffs. Austria. Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Estonia, Ger
many, Greece, Hungary, Latvla, Ru-
mania, Norway and Turkey have all
made it impossible for their citizens to
deal in foreign exchange without gov
ernment permission. The object Of each
government has been to stop the fall in
value of its own currency and the con-
sequent confusion of the national
finances, already hit by wholesale with
drawals of money by foreign creditors
Other expedients have been tried. The
abandonment of the gold standard, in
the case of Great Britain and 10 other
countries, has given temporary advan-
tage to some of their export trades; but
this has Immediately led to retaliation
by neighboring countries. If all the
forms of economic warfare, that which
has certainly caused the most damage
is the quota system, by which only a
fixed amount of any particular type of
goods may be imported into a coun-
try. Germany, Spain, France and Italy
are among the many countries which
have had recourse to this system.
Never before has our modern world
had so terrible an object lesson of the
futility of trying to remedy the eco
nomic evils which affect the whole world
by isolated national action. The net re-
law and bribery; sentenced June 10,
1000 to five to fen vearS. hasad 1.-THE