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Few hours later, leaning on the arm of his naval aide President Roosevelt was out on the White House portico to welcome his guest as he drove up in a limousine. Mrs. Roosevelt was there too and Daughter Anna Roosevelt Dall and Major, the police dog, and Meggie, the Scotch terrier. "I'm awfully glad to see you here," cried the President as he squeezed the Prime Minister's hand. He greeted Miss MacDonald as "Miss Ishbel." All moved inside the White House to have tea after the most friendly and informal meeting between heads of States ever witnessed by the Washington correspondents.
An hour later President Roosevelt turned over his office and desk to Mr. MacDonald to meet the Press alone. For 30 minutes the Prime Minister talked, delivering an eloquent sermon on international forbearance. He mentioned God six times; deplored the "awful way the world is wagging"; quoted Lincoln; told how he and the President were going to "lay their heads together." He gave out no news.
That evening after dinner while Mrs. Roosevelt and Daughter Ishbel were off at a dog show, the President and the Prime Minister settled in their chairs by an open fire in the upstairs Oval Room. Mr. MacDonald wanted to talk about War debts. Mr. Roosevelt wanted to talk about stabilizing the dollar and the pound. They had hardly felt out each other's mind and method before it was bedtime. The Prime Minister slept in what used to be Lincoln's Study. He recalled that when he was last at the White House it had been President Hoover's workroom.
On Sunday the Roosevelts and the MacDonalds went for a seven-hour cruise down the Potomac on the Sequoia. Because it was chilly on deck the President and the Prime Minister sat below talking, talking, talking, mostly about disarmament and how to bring the moribund Geneva Conference back to life and a happy ending. Back at the White House Mrs. Roosevelt scrambled some eggs in a chafing dish for family supper.
Meanwhile the job of finding a common ground for U. S.-British currency discussions had been turned over to a staff of experts. The question: should the pound be stabilized around $3.50 as the British experts suggested or around $4 as the U. S. experts urged? Out of some such agreement might come a return to a reduced gold standard by both countries. The experts later discussed their findings with President & Premier, who then announced in a joint statement that they had "reviewed the substance of their discussions with deep satisfaction," that definite agreements must await the World Conference itself.
While the President was off cruising, M. Herriot arrived in Washington, took up quarters at the Mayflower Hotel, awaited his turn at the White House. When asked about international currency stabilization, he packed his pipe while replying: "I'm interested in anything that will keep the price of my tobacco stable—and I have probably said too much at that."
Few moments after M. Herriot had been greeted in French by the President on the White House portico, a limousine drove up and out popped Canada's pious Premier Richard Bedford Bennett. Almost simultaneously Canada's Finance Minister Edgar Nelson Rhodes, in Ottawa, was announcing that Canada had ceased redemption of Dominion notes in gold.