BRETTON WOODS AGREEMENT

Evening Star, Issue 25701, 26 January 1946, Page 8

BRETTON WOODS AGREEMENT

AUSTRALIA DEFFERS SIGNING (Rec. 8 a.m.) CANBERRA, January 25. The Commonwealth Government has deferred decision on the question of signing the Bretton Woods Agreement. For a whole day last week the full Cabinet considered the text of the agreement and 'the question of signing it, but could reach no agreement. The question was deferred until next meeting on February 6. It is understood that Mr Chifley and Dr Evatt were anxious that approval should be given immediately, but that section of the Cabinet headed by the Minister of Transport, Mr Ward, and the Minister of Immigration, Mr Calwell, opposed it. The agreement, which was drawn up at the United Nations monetary and financial conference at Bretton Woods, America, provides for the establishment of aii international bank with all the signatories as partners. Britain signed only after an exhaustive debate in the House of Commons.

It is expected that Australia eventually will be forced into the position of signing, otherwise it will be excluded from attending the important series of monetary and trade talks which will take place in the United States, probably in April.