MULTILATERAL PLAN

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 107, 19 April 1933, Page 8

MULTILATERAL PLAN

INTERNATIONAL CURRENCY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S AIMS. WILL SOUND MR MACDONALD. NEW YORK, April 17. The “New York Times’ ” Washington correspondent says that an outstanding reason for tho refusal of the Senate to-day to adopt Senator Wheeler’s silver amendment, which was a direct inflationary proposal was an apparently authoritative rumour that Mr Roosevelt will seek to negotiate a multi-lateral treaty with Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan for an international currency agreement on the basis of bimetallism. It is further hinted that the plan will be taken up with Mr Ramsay MacDonald before the week is ended. The purpose of such a treaty is, of course, to prevent fluctuation of international exchange. Ils consummation would mean an extensive international campaign of silver purchases, which is the result desired by Senator Wheeler’s partisans. No intimation of the details of the plan has been revealed, but it is understood that the President’s financial advisers have been labouring over it for weeks. It has been the subject of conversations between Mr Hull and Sir Ronald Lindsay. The only other development in the international situation is the refusal of White House and the State Department to comment on press reports that M. Herriot will seek a lump-sum-payable basis for debt agreement. Tho unofficial policy of the Government, according to authoritative sources, envisages sincere consideration of any debt programme submitted, but it will continue to adhere to the contention that other economic questions should not be subordinated to debts.