MINISTERS WILL NOT ATTEND LONDON TALKS

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 September 1947, Page 5

MINISTERS WILL NOT ATTEND LONDON TALKS

(Rec. 11 a.m.) CANBERRA, This Day.

Australia will be represented at the Empire talks in Ldndon this month by Mr J. B. Brigden, economic adviser at the Australian Embassy in Washington. It is emphasised in Canberra that the London talks will not be a full-dress Imperial conference, although the possibility of such a conference later is not ruled out. The talks on Britain’s dollar crisis have been arranged to take advantage of the presence of the delegates for a meeting of the International Bank and Monetary Fund on September 11. The dollar discussions will follow the meeting.

Mr Brigden will be briefed by the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr 5... G. McFarlane, who is now on his way back to Australia after long financial discussions in London. It is stated that the Prime Minister, Mr Chifley, will not go to the London dollar talks and that the New Zealand Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, is unlikely to attend. Official sources state that there is no need for a full-dress conference on the dollar position at the moment, because all the Dominion Treasurers are thoroughly familiar with the position.