In a review last week dealing with the problems of
peace, we showed that English business men and financiers had been prominent in the work of economic assainissement. We should like to congratulate the Government on their backing all along of the Economic Committee of the League in its efforts to promote freer trade. On April 10th they ratified the Convention on the Abolition of Import and Export Prohibitions and Restrictions (concluded last July). The Government have actually been the first to ratify. A dozen or so other countries—including France, Germany and Belgium —have asked for Parliamentary sanction, and with Great Britain setting such a good example, we may confidently hope that the necessary number of eighteen ratifica- tions will be obtained before October 1st. The discussions in the Committee last week showed, unfor- tunately, that little progress is being made in the reduction of tariffs by collective international action on the lines of the Hides, Skirts and Bones Convention. But much can be done by an oblique approach to the problem, as, for instance, by a scrutiny of the system of marks of origin. * *
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