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"Consideration of existing interrelationships of the various currencies and monetary standards of the Empire and of the desirability and feasibility of taking steps to restore and stabilize the general price level and to establish exchange.
"C. — Negotiation of Trade Agree ments."
Aquatic Conferences. After crossing the Atlantic last week, delegations representing 1) His Majesty's Government in Great Britain, Northern Ireland & the non-self-governing parts of the Empire (India, Colonies, Protectorates, Mandates); 2) His Majesty's Government in South Africa landed at Quebec; 3) His Majesty's Government in the Irish Free State landed at Montreal. The delegation of 4) His Majesty's Government in Newfoundland came by coastal steamer. After crossing the Pacific, delegations representing 5) His Majesty's Government in Australia and 6) His Majesty's Government in New Zealand landed at Vancouver.
Naturally the No. 1 delegation is paramount, representing 430,000,000 people out of the total Empire population of 450,-000,000. The No. 1 delegation is headed by Lord President of the Council the Rt. Hon. Stanley Baldwin, Leader of the Conservative (majority) Party in Great Britain. With benign, bumbling, pipe-puffing Mr. Baldwin came lean, hawk-nosed Chancellor of the Exchequer Neville Chamberlain; dignified President of the Board of Trade Walter Runciman whose batwing tie is always straight; undignified Minister of Dominions James Henry ("Jim") Thomas who drops his h's; other delegates, secretaries, stenographers to the number of 130. Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald's younger son, tooth-brush-mustached Malcolm MacDonald, came as the delegation's press contact man.
On both oceans and on various liners the delegations held aquatic conferences last week, preserving the tradition of secrecy. First chief delegates to land (at Vancouver with a total of 60 persons, some representing the Fiji Islands) were former Premiers Joseph Gordon Coates of New Zealand and Stanley Melbourne Bruce of Australia. Cocky Australian henchmen embarrassed their rich, cultured, suave Mr. Bruce by crowing, "You can take it this will be a Bruce show!"
"Canada is 35 times as large as New Zealand," said New Zealand's Coates. "and let us hope her heart is proportionately generous." His Majesty's Lieu-enant-Governor of the Province of British Columbia, plump, guttural J. W. Fordham Johnson, sped the delegates to their train for Ottawa. Croaked he: "Anything short of success at this Conference might well have unthinkable results!"
Next chief delegate to land (at Montreal) was Vice President Sean Thomas O'Kelly of the Irish Free State. Bristling, he told Canadian newshawks that, in view of the Free State's present quarrel with the Mother Country, his delegation had no hope of reaching an accord with the No. 11Delegation at Ottawa but hopes to sign accords with the dominions.
The Nos. 1 and 2 Delegations & passengers aboard the Empress of Britain did not panic when a fire broke out while Chief Delegate Stanley Baldwin was appealing for contributions to the Seamen's Orphanage Fund. ''That ends the program," said Mr. Baldwin serenely when the flames leaped, to be quickly quenched by extinguishers.
Ten hours later the Empress of Britain was in exciting collision with the Briarwood, freighter, but no great damage was done and the Empress docked at Quebec only eleven hours late. Right royally welcomed and lustily cheered the Delegations entrained for Ottawa.
In Ottawa tart-tongued John Bromley, Council chairman of the Trades Union Congress of Great Britain (representing 3,700.000 workers), sounded off before the official Delegations arrived: "Why not set up a permanent secretariat to continue into the future what few tottering steps this Conference may take?"
"Disillusion Must Result." Exuberant over the prospects at Ottawa seemed Britain's "Press lords," Baron Beaverbrook and Viscount Rothermere, whose Hearstian papers have a joint circulation of 10,000,000 in the British Isles and who have plugged blatantly for years in favor of something called "Empire Free Trade." Serenely last week Sir Arthur Salter, British economist famed in the U. S. for his scholarly best seller Recovery—The Second Effort ($3), observed: "The misleading phrase 'Empire Free Trade' has caused much confusion in the English public mind. . . .
"Too many Englishmen, though not of course those in closest touch with the situation, think that the basis of negotiations [at Ottawa] will be a free entry for Dominion food and raw materials into the United Kingdom (with tariffs against foreign countries) in return for a similar free entry of English manufactures into the Dominions. This, of course, is a complete illusion. Canada, Australia, South Africa and India, especially the first, have all become largely industrialized on the basis of tariffs, and they have no intention whatever of allowing effective English competition with their industries. . . .
"Disillusion must result."
Sentiment is after all the chief tie which still unites the nations of the British Commonwealth. Soon after he stepped upon Canadian soil Lord Bessborough struck the note that must and will be sounded again & again during the Imperial Economic Conference. "I feel," said His Excellency, "that our interests are being more closely linked day by day." This sentiment may surmount Irish hatred, Indian passive resistance and Dutch-begotten South African suspicion of the Mother Country.
Ottawa, at the very least, will present a Royal pageant: the Governor General in his twinkling car (with a gilt crown, in lieu of license plates, projecting from the roof in front) sweeping up Parliament Hill; the blare of trumpets, salutes and the opening of the Conference by His Excellency in the Parliament Building; the singing of "God Save the King"; state dinners at Rideau Hall, informal dances at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club and Their Excellencies' Garden Party—all these will suggest the pomp of London (pop. 8,000,000) in Ottawa (pop. 125,000).