Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-10-23
ENGLAND'S FORMAL REPLY
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Lord Salisbury Gives Details of Conference
With Bimetallists.
"p"s"ls submitted by Senator VOL
colt and the Reasons for Their
Refusal.

ull details OF the negotiations with the
american b,metallfc1 commission regarding
d money agreement were given out in Lon
doh Yesterday by Lord Salisbury. They are
fr.'substance as follows:
AT the conference held at the foreign
Office on July u. the premier, the Marouis
OF Salisbury; the secretary of state for
ihdla, Lord George Hamilton: the chancel
iof Oh the eXchequer, Sir Michael Hicks
heach' the first lord of the treasury, Mr..
"A. D. balfour; the United States ambassa-
"or' Coi. John Hay, and the United States
monetary commissioners, Senator Edward
". "oicott of Colorado; ex-Vice President
stevenson of Illinois and Gen. Charles Jack
son Paine of Massachusetts were presrn1
senator Wolcott submitted the following
list of contributions which he thought Eng
land should make:
First. The opening of the Indian minis
ana the repeal of the order making the SOW
ereign legal tender in India
+. second Placing one-ffth of the bullion
IN the issue department of the Bank of
England in silver.
Third. Raising the legal tender limit of
SILVER TO, say, 80 and issuing 2O-shiIline
notes based on silver, which shall be legal
tender and the retirement, in graduation
W otnsr"lse, OF the 1O-shilling gold pieces
silver. So VII
Fourth An agreement to coin annually
SO much silver, the amount to be left open.
ritn. Inc opening of the English minis
~ me coinage OF rupees and to the COMA ge
OF BRUSH dollars which shall be fun legal
lehdef IN the straits settlements and other
SILVER standard colonies, and tender in the
tender 'eA Aee"i
sixth: Colonial action and the coinage
of silver in Egypt.
seventh Something having the gen.
e1 al scope of the Huskisson plan
second conference was held on the
lotn, when in addition to those already
mentioned, the French ambassador and M
GeoHrey, counselor of the French embassy.
were present.
THE French ambassador was invited to
ueciare the position of the French govern
ment. and he said France was ready To re-
open her minis to the coinage of silver if
tle co1nniercial nations adopted the same
course. and he advocated at great length
the ratio of 1912
But. he explained. France would not
S Ssa tne reopening of the minis of In
ola alone as being sufficient guarantee to
permit the French government to reopen
me FRENCH minis to the free coinage of sill
yer.
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach then announced
definitely that Great Britain would not
agree to open the English minis to the I'M
limited coinage of silver and that what
ever views he and his colleagues might
separately hold regarding bmetallism. he
could say that they were united on this
point.
Baron De Courcel said, as a personal
suggestion, that among other contributions
ne thought Great Rritaah should open the
Indian mints and also agree to purchase
annually 10,O00.O0O pounds sterling of silver
Tor series o. years. =
senator Wolcott accepted the proposal
tnat the British government should make
this purchase with proper safeguards and
it's use.
since this conferetee ne British govern
ment has been con4ideFthg the proposals
and finally made the reply handed to the
United states ambassador yesterday.
The reply of theigofs eminent of India,
upon which Lord Salisbury based this de-
cision. is long d9fumeAt. giving an en-
phatic negative to the proposal to reopen
the Indian minis. ftisatS
The first result ofathe suggested meas
ures. II they WERE to- succeed even tenn
porarily In their object, would be an in
tense disturbance of Indian trade and in
dustry. There would be q sudden rise in
exchange, which, If the ratio of 15Ik to l
were adopted, would be to about q pence
the rupee. Such a rise would be enough
to XIII our export trade for time at least,
unless the public were convinced that the
ARRANGEMENT would be permanent and have
the effect intended -
The paralysis OF trade and industry
would be prolonged and would be accom-
panied by acute individual suffering None
OF the advantages expected would be at
tanned and the country would pass through
a critical period. which would retard It's
progress for years."
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