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I. PREPARATION OF THE CONFERENCE. The Powers which participated in the Lausanne Conference, on the conclusion of their work, undertook to decide upon " the measures necessary to solve the other economic and financial difficulties which are responsible for, and may prolong, the present world crisis." Consequently, they decided to request the League of Nations to convene a Monetary and Economic Conference for this purpose, the agenda for which was to be drawn up by a preparatory Commission of qualified experts. The Council of the League of Nations, having decided at its meeting on the 15th July, 1932, to comply with this request, set up a small Committee (Committee for the Organization of the Conference) under the chairmanship of Sir John Simon, which was instructed to consider what practical steps should be taken. As the result of decisions taken at the same meeting by the Council of the League of Nations, and on the 6th October, 1932, by the Council's Committee of Organization, the Preparatory Commission of Experts was finally set up as follows : — (a) One financial and one economical expert from each of the following countries: Germany, Belgium, United Kingdom, China, United States of America, France, India, Italy, and Japan. (b) Six experts appointed by the Council of the League of Nations, belonging to the following nations : — For financial questions : Poland, Switzerland, Finland. For economic questions : Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Argentine Republic. (c) Two experts appointed by the Bank for International Settlements. (d) One expert representing the Rapporteur on financial questions to the Council of the League of Nations (Norway). In addition, an invitation to take part in the work of the Preparatory Commission was issued to the International Labour Office, which appointed three delegates, and to the International Institute of Agriculture, which appointed one. The participation of the United States of America was the outcome of a correspondence between the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the United States, in which it was stipulated that reparations, inter-governmental debts, and specific tariff rates (as distinct from Customs policy) should be excluded from the programme, whereas the problem of silver would be included among the monetary questions. The Preparatory Commission of Experts met for the first time at Geneva from the 31st October to the 7th November, 1932, under the chairmanship of Dr. L. J. A. Trip, President of the Netherlands Bank and representative of the Bank for International Settlements. It met for the second time at the beginning of January, 1933. Its findings, embodied in a Draft Annotated Agenda which was to serve as the basis for the work of the Conference, were submitted on the 19th January to the Chairman of the Committee of Organization, and forwarded a few days later in that form to the States invited to the Conference. 11. INAUGURATION OF THE WORK OF THE CONFERENCE. His Majesty the King opened the work of the Conference at an inaugural meeting held on the 12th June, 1933, at 3 p.m. The Right Hon. J. Ramsay Mac Donald assumed the Presidency, in accordance with a resolution requesting him to do so which the Council of the League of Nations adopted at its meeting on the 25th January, 1933. Sixty-seven States were invited to take part in the work of the Conference. Sixty-four complied with the invitation and sent representatives. In addition, the following took part in its work in an advisory capacity : The Economic Committee, the Financial Committee, the Organization for Communications and Transit of the League of Nations, the International Labour Office, the International Institute of Agriculture, and the Bank for International Settlements. The New Zealand delegation reached London on the 14th June and attended all meetings of the Conference from that date until its adjournment on the 27th July.

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