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UNRRA and the Inter-gdvernmental Committee for Refugees, and by the authority of the Conference a technical expert of the International Cooperative Alliance was added to the Committee without power to vote. The Chairman of the Committee was Mr. Ness Edwards, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labour and, National Service, Great Britain. The Yice-Chairmen were Mr. C. F. Evelein, Director of Social and Economic Affairs for the Phillips Works, Endhaven, and M. J. Racamond, Secretary of the French General Confederation of Labour. The reporter of the Committee was Mrs. Karin Kock, Professor of Economics, Stockholm. Mr. T). C. Tait, Chief of the Employment Section of the International Labour Organization, together with Mr. E. J. Riches, a New Zealander, of the International Labour Office, represented the Secretary-General on the Committee. "With the exception of one small point which was later referred to the Conference, the Resolution expressing the findings of this very representative Committee was unanimous. Subsequently the Conference unanimously adopted the findings and the recommendations. As practically all of the matters considered by the Committee arose from the economic difficulties of a national and international character arising from the World War, they had a distinct bearing on the social and economic position of New Zealand. The report brought down by the Committee and adopted by the Conference is too lengthy to quote in full, but a perusal of the document itself by those interested will prove to be extremely beneficial in assisting in the solution of problems which affect our national economy. Indeed, many of the recommendations made have already been adopted by the Government of New Zealand in its policy and programme of the transition from a wartime to peacetime economy. In presenting the report to the Conference, Mrs. Kock said,: — In some countries the question of relaxing controls and of reducing the burden of taxation will come up very soon; in others it will be a very long time before such measures can be undertaken. One of the mostt valuable experiences made during the Committee work is that the discussion has brought forward so many different aspects of the problem. The situation differsi so much from country to country that it is often very difficult, not to say impossible, to find one solution. This is especially true with regard to the relaxation of controls and the reduction of taxation. It will be seen from the above quotation that the reporter not only epitomizes the problems which affect representatives from many countries, but, indeed, touched upon problems affecting our own country. Outlining the general consideration as a preamble to the various Resolutions adopted, the Committee went on record as follows: — It is generally agreed that full employment depends ion the maintenance of a high level of expenditure, the main components of which are private and public investment, private consumption, current expenditure by Governments, and expenditure (by citizens of other States) on exports. The object of economic policy must therefore be to stabilize total expenditure as far as possible at a level ensuring full employment. In the transition period, however, there is a danger in many countries not that total expenditure will be too low, but that it will be too high in relation to the supply of goods, with a consequent, danger of inflation. Consequently, policy must be directed on the one hand to increasing the supply of goods and services and to promoting their export from countries which have them to countries which need them, especially the devastated countries, aiid on the other hand to maintaining controls as long as the shortages prevail. The problems of the devastated countries were stressed by many speakers in the general discussion and many of the paragraphs of the Kesolution are concerned with those problems. The above extract, which arises from the unanimous findings of a world Committee, epitomizes the problems with which New Zealand is at present concerned. 4—A 7

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