ECONOMIC CONFERENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21920, 4 April 1933, Page 7

ECONOMIC CONFERENCE

DISCUSSION OVER VENUE ATTITUDE OF UNITED STATES. NEW YORK, March 31. The Washington correspondent of the New York Times . reports that the spokesman for Mr Franklin Roosevelt said to-day that unless Mr Ramsay MacDonald requested it the American Government would proceed on the theory that the Economic Conference would be held in London, despite the hints of the French and others that they would prefer it to be held in Washington. ,He pointed out that the invitation to the conference came from England, and that it would be an international discourtesy even to discuss the contemplated change. It is reported that Mr Norman Davis, in London, carried the invitation to Mr MacDonald to come to Washington to discuss debts. The Economic Conference agenda has aroused interest here, but no official comment is forthcoming. The conversations between Mr Cordell Hall, Secretary of State, and Sir Ronald Lindsay were continued to-day, and were followed by the usual perfunctory statement indicating that the deliberations were still of a general nature. According to a message published on Saturday, the French Government had informally suggested that the World Economic Conference should be held at Washington instead of at London, ft appeared that the chief opposition to holding the conference in Washington came from Mr Ramsay MacDonald and from certain Democratic members of Congress. The message said that Mr MacDonald would naturally like the meetings to be held in London, where he could preside, while the Democrats for tactical reasons would like them to be held abroad, for if the conference failed in Washington it would be taken to be President Roosevelt’s failure, while if it failed in Europe it would be the fault of “ Continental politics.” It was understood that many British statesmen, including Sir John Simon (Minister for Foreign Affairs), believed that the conference would have more chance of success at Washington, because of the propaganda conducted by certain American newspapers to the effect that European diplomats, when they meet Americans on foreign soil, “ always victimise them by undescribcd subtleties.”