The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-07-19
BRITAIN SENDS {
BEST BRAINS
to CONCLAVE
Stanley Baldwin Is Head of
Imposing Delegation to
Ottawa Conference.
FREE TRADE WILL LOSE
Dominions Are Certain to
Reject Plan That Would
Spell Ruin.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS
Scripps-Howard Foreign Editor

OTTAWA, July 19.-The stage is
set and the actors are all here for
the full dress opening Thursday Of
| the imperial conference.-the most
momentous, perhaps, ever held by
/ the British commonwealth of ma
| lions.
The stupendous Importance Great
Britain attaches to the gathering is
shown by the character of her dele
cation which set foot on Canadian
soil Monday night. 1t is headed by
Stanley Baldwin, twice prime min
lister and now lord president of the
council
Others are Neville Chamberlain,
chancellor of the exchequer; j. H.
Thomas, secretary of state for the
dominions, Lord Hailsham, secre-
tary of war; Walter Runciman,
president of the Board of Trade,
and Sir Cunliffe Lister, secretary OF
state of colonies, all leading men,
berS of the British cabinet.
Not since Versailles has Britain
sent abroad such an imposing array
of statesmen.
All Send NOtabIes
Sean T. O'Kelly, Ireland's vice.
president, heads the Free State
delegation, while either premiers or
ranking cabinet members are here
to speak for other parts of the en-
pire.
midas picturesque delegation is
led by Sir Atul Chatterjee, former
high commissioner for India in
London and we'll known in the
United States. The Indian, north
ern Irish, South African and south
ern Rhodesia delegates also arrived
Monday night on the same ship
with the British.
The Irish Free State delegation
significantly did not come with the
British, but arrived in advance and
set up headquarters. Friction is
expected between the O'Kelly dele
cation and the others early in the
proceedings, for if Premier Bennett
of Canada proposes a motion of
loyalty to the king, as it is said
he will, the Free State group will
abstain from voting.
The incident may not go any
farther, but it can not fail to have
some effect upon the ultimate de-
cisions of the conference.
MacNider on Scene
Such stand on the part of the
Irish would be in keeping with
President de Valera's determination
to abolish the oath of allegiance to
the crown.
AS this is strictly a family affair,
foreign countries will take no Off
cial part. But unofficially the
United States will be very much
present, on the sidelines of course,
in the person of Minister Hanford
MacNider and other observers.
In fact, the United States has
more at stake than almost any Of
the individual dominions. The chief
purpose of the parley is to build a
tariff wall around the empire, shut
out foreign goods insofar as possible.
and give preference to empire mem
bers.
But the British empire does more
than three billion dollars worth of
trade annually with the United
States and if anything should hap
pen to this it would prove a serious
blow to our producers.
Baldwin and the British deleqa-
ton are quite frankly out for empire
free trade. Should they win
almost third of our foreign COM
merce would be knocked in the
head
Currency Is Problem
But they can not win. Dominion
delegates say such a policy would
spell utter ruin of many of their
established industries, so there must
be. some compromise between this
Baldwin ideal and the standpat
protectionism Of the dominions.
An attempt will also be mada
here to create an empire currency
as medium of exchange, but there
even greater difficulty will be en-
countered. Britain is off gold.
Canada and South Africa are on.
and in Asia there is the silver prob
lem.
Thus the various parts of the en-
pire are pulling in every direction.
Some compromise, perhaps a stabil-
lied exchange, is expected