24 SEPTEMBER 1932, Page 2

The Stresa Agreements The Stresa Conference has ended inconclusively with

a series of recommendations admirable on paper, invalu- able if they are carried out and worth nothing if they are not. The -one practical proposal for combined action was the plan for securing import quotas from consuming countries for the surplus grain of the agrarian countries: Something can be achieved' in that direction through bilateral agreements and these will no doubt be stimulated by the Stresa discussions, but whether the projected central fund . for the assistance of the. farmers -of Central and South-East Europe . will ever materialize is still doubtful. M. Bonnet, French delegate and President of the. Conference, committed his Government to it, but the delegates of Great Britain, Germany, Italy and other countries all' made reservations. The Stresa Conference has certainly not been useless. It has given an impetus to whatever movement there may be in the direction of the destruction of tariff and other barriers ; it has cleared a good deal of ground for the corning Economic Conference ; and it has evolved a financial plan which, even if it does not secure acceptance at once, has quite definite merits.