The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1897-10-28
FULL ACCOUNT OF THE PROPOSALS
SUGGESTED TO GREAT
BRITAIN.
INDIA SENT A NEGATIVE REPLY
To the Proposals to Reopen the IN
dian Mints-Jndian Authorities
Doubt IL Three Countries
Could Sustain silver.


was issued by the British foreign office
this evening The following account OF
the negotiations is taken from the OF
fetal publications.
At the conference held at the foreign
office on July II Senator Wolc0tt eX-
planned that the object of the mission
was to ascertain in advance Of an inter-
national conference the views OF the gov
eminent on the question of reaching an
international bimetalic agreement. In
France they had reached complete ana
satisfactory understanding, and the en-
VOWS would have the cooperation OF the
French ambassador in London.
The senator then explained that the sue
cess of the mission depended upon the
attitude Great Britain would take, and
he requested Great Britain to agree TO
open the English mints as its contrlpu-
tion TO the attempt to restore 1nterha-
tional bimetallsm with France and the
United States cooperating together IN an
attempt to that end. -.
The Marquis of Salisbury asked II
France was ready to open her mlnts 10
| free coinage, and at what ratio. r
The senator then presented the follow
inc list of contributions which, among
others, he suggested Great Britain might
First-The opening of the Indian minis
ond tbe repeal of the order making the
sovereign legal tender in India. -.
Second-Placing one-tifth of bullion III
the issue department of the Bank OF ENG
| land in silver. ,,..;. of
| silver TO say 10 pounds, and issuing III
| vnr shilling notes based on silver, when
| shall be legal tender. and the retirement,
| i'm graduation or otherwise, OF the ten
shilling gold pieces and the SUBSTITUTION
of paper based on silver. ,,
Fourth-An agreement to com ahhuhi.
" so much silver, the amount TO be lett
open. 49, E,cI;sh
minis to the coinage of rupees and the
coinage of British dollars. which shall DE
ful tender in the settlements and other
silver standard colonies and tender III the
| United Kingdom to the limit of silver le-
gal tender.
Sixth-Colonial action and the coinage
| of silver in Egypt.
Seventh-Somethin having the gener-
al scope of the Guskisson plan;
The meeting then closed and second
| conference was held on the 10th.
The French ambassador was invited TO
| declare the position of the French gov
| eminent, and he said France was ready
| 70 rcopen her minis to the coinage OF
| silver if the commercial nations adopted
| the same course, and he advocated at
| great length the ratio of II IL TO L. but.
| he explained, France would not consider
the reopcnng of the minis of India alone
ms being sufficient guarantee to permit
the French government to reopen the
| French mints to the free coinage of sill
yer.
nounccd definitely that Great britain
would not agree to reopen the En.gllsh
| mints to the unlimited coinage of silver.
and that whatever views he and his col
| leagues might separately hold regarding
bimetalism he could say they were unit
ed on this point.
Baron de Courcel said rs a personal
suggestion that among other contribu,
tons he thought Great Britain should
omen the Indian minis and also agree to
purchase annually 1O,oOO,Ooo pounds
| sterling of silver for n series of years.
Senator Wolcott accepted this PROPOSE
| ton.
Since this conference the British gov
eminent has been considering the pro-
posals. and finally made the reply hand
ed to the United States ambassador yes
terday and cabled exclusively to the AS
s0ciated Press. ;.
upon which Lord Salisbury based his de-
cision. is a long document giving an en-
phatc negative to the proposal to reopen
| the Indian minis. 1t says:
'sThe first result of the suggested meas
ureS. if they were to succeed even tempo
rarily in their object would he an intense
disturbance of India trade and industry.
l. ln,N N,n IN
| change. which, if tho ratio of II IL to
were adopted would he enough to Kill
our export trade for a time. at least I'M
less the public were convinced that the
| arrangement would he permanent and
have the effect intended.
"The paralysis of trade and industry
would be prolonged and would he accom-
nanied by. acute individual suffering;
| None of the advantages expected would
he attained. and the country would pass
through critical period which would re-
tard its progress for years. The eX-
change value of the rupee having risen
suddenly would fall equally to point far
lower than the present level. possibly to
Q pence and even lower. Such fall.
apart from other disastrous results.
would necesstate additional taxation to
the amount of many croers."
The reply says that the effect of the
adoption of the scheme would probably
he an increase in prices in France and
the United States. but decrease in In
dia. a change which France and the
United States would contemplate with
eQuanimity, but which would be mani
testify impossible to India.
Then follows the opinion that India is
on the point of securing stable en-
change Of 16 pence per rupee and il
would he exceedingly foolish to throw
away the position already attained by
an acceptance of proposals which, if thev
failed of their intended object. would
place India permanently under the silver
standard with all its admitted diSadvant.
ages. Nothing but assured success could
justify India in Joining in the experiment
and our belief is that the proposal will
fail to secure permanent ratio of IL IL
to I. One reason for this conclusion is
that the arrangement would rest on toe
narrow n basis. The union of two coun-
tries with third lending assistance is a
very different thing from the information.
al union of majority of the import
countries of the world advocated by the
Indian government in dispatches for.
warded in March and June, 1882 and in
February and September. 1888. We
doubt whether any two or three nations
in the world. unless one of them were
Great Britain. could establish the re.
ouired stability. 1t is certain that France