Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-10-23

! MINIS. and the Whole Scheme
| Has Fallen.
London, October 22.-The corre-
| spondence in regard TO the bimetallic
proposals of the United States monet
airy commission was issued by the Brit
ish foreign office this evening. The
| following account of the negotiations
is taken from the official publications:
| At the conference held at the for
eign Office on July'12. the premier, the
Marquis Of Salisbury, the secretary of
state for India; Lord George Hamil-
ton; the chancellor of the exchequer.
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach; the first lord
of the treasury, Mr.. A. j. Balfour; the
United States ambassador, Col John
| w. Hay, and the United States mon
| etary commissioners, Senator Edward
| o. Wolcott, of Colorado; ex-Vice Pres
| ident Adlai e. Stevenson, OF Illinois:
and Gen. Charles Jackson Paine, of
| Massachusetts,, were present. On the
| invitation of the British premier, Sem
ator Wolcott explained that the object
of the mission was to ascertain in adj
vance of an international conference,
the views Of the governments, and the
ENJOYS had determined to ascertain
| the views of the French, British and
| German governments on the question
of reaching an international bimetallic
agreement. They had been to France,
where they reached a complete and
satisfactory understanding with the
! French government, and the ENJOYS
would have the cooper alton in this
matter of the French ambassador in
London.
The Senator then explained that the
success of the mission depended upon
the attitude Great Britain would take,
and he requested Great Britain to agree
to open the English minis as its con-
| tribution to the attempt to restore in
ternational bimetallism, with France
and the United States cooperating to-
gether in an attempt to that end The
Marquis of Salisbury asked if France
was ready to open her minis to free
coinage, and Senator Wolcitt replied
yes"
The premier thereupon inquired at
what ratio France would open her
minis. Senator Wolcott said at 49,,
adding that the American ENJOYS had
accepted this ratio.
The meeting then closed and it was
| understood by the parties that in the
absence of the French ambassador Ba-
ron de Courcel, the proceedings should
be regarded as informal and a second
! conference was held on the 18th, which,
in addition to those already mentioned,
the French ambassador and NJ. Geof-
frey, the councillor of the French en-
bassy, were present.
The French ambassador was invited
to declare the position of the French
government, and he said France was
ready to reopen her minis to the coin
age OF silver if the commercial nations
adopted the same course. and he advo-
Gated at great length the ratio of 1515.
But,he explained, France would not
consider the reopening Of the minis of
India alone as being sufficient guar
antee to permit the French government
to reopen the French minis to the free
coinage of silver
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach then an
nounced definitely that Great Britain
would not agree to open the English
minis to the unlimited coinage of silver
and that whatever views he and his
colleagues might separately hold re-
garding bimetallism, he could say that
they were united on this point.
Baron de Courcel said. as a personal
suggestion. that among other contribu-
-tions, he thought Great Britain should
open the Indian mints and also agree
to purchase annually 10000 900 pounds
sterling Of silver for a series OF years
Senator WoIcott accepted the propos-
al that the British government should
make this purchase with proper safe
guards and provisions as TO the place
and manner Of it's use
Since this conference, the British
government has been considering the
proposals and finally made the reply
handed to the United States ambassador
yesterday and cabled exclusively to the
Associated Press.
The reply of the government OF India
upon which Lord Salisbury based his
decision is long document. giving an
emphatic negative to the proposal to
reopen the India mint