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Silver Report Comes

Silver Report Comes image
Parent Issue
Day
19
Month
November
Year
1897
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Washington, Nov. 16. - The official report of the correspondence in regard to the bimetallic proposals of the United States monetary commission to the government of Great Britain, together with the report of the proceedings at the conference of the British premier, the secretary of state for India, the first lord of the treasury, and the chancellor of the exchequer, with the French ambassador and our cominissioners, has reached this country. It fully conflrms the reports cabled en Oct. 21 and 22. The neg-otiations feil through, notwithstanding the expressed willingness of the French government to open its mints, owing to the rejection by the British government of the proposition to again open the Indian mints to the free coinage of silver. None of the other propositions wert replied to beeause that one, the most important concessions requested of Great Britain, could not be acceded to. Deferrrd t India's Wlslle. The government of Great Britain, la making her answer, deferred to the wishes of the gövernmeiri of India, to which the proposal was referred. and the reply of the government of India, therefore, is the most important communication in the correspondence. It ia a lengthy document, in which the advantages, pro and con, to India are argued, and a very strong case from their standpoint is made out in favor of the rejection of the proposal. The disturbance of values in India, with the attendant paralysis of trade, at least temporarily; the fall of silver prices in India, concurrently with the increase of gold prices in Europe and America, etc, are advanced, but the most potent reason urged against the proposition is that the burden of failure, if failure should come from the experiment for the re-establishment of bimetallism by France and the United States, must inevitably fall on India. Both the United States and France, the reply argües, with their supply of gold, could to a greater or less extent protect themselves if the experiment did not succeed. In other words, the Indian government as a preliminary proposition declared that it could not risk the success of the suggested measureg. Contatns a Reservation. This definite and absolute rejection of the proposal was fully set forth in the cable reports of the correspondence, but the document contains a reservation which would seem to indícate that if the scope of the proposed experiment were suffieiently broadened India might be willing, at least, to reconsider her refusal. That paragraph In Lord Elgin's letter te as follows: "We note that the proposals of the governments of France and the United States are subject to the proviso that they are satisfied that they will receive assistance from other powers in increasing the demands for silver. We believe that a Hmited increase of the eraantity of silver used as currency will exercise a very trifling influence, if any. in raising the gold price of silver, and that the only assistance from other powera which oan be of any real valué wculd be the addition of other countries to the bimetallic unión of France and the United States. If. however, assurances of really substantial co-operation should be secured from other countries we shall be glad to learn the exact nature of the assurances, and we shall then consider whether the promised co-operation chanp-es the conditions of the problem or adds materially to the chances of success."

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Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News