OTTAWA BENEFITS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 14, 14 December 1932, Page 2

OTTAWA BENEFITS

CANADA DISAPPOINTED. The Prime Minister of Canada, Mr Bennett, will visit England to discuss, among other matters relating to the Ottawa Conference, the fact that under present arrangements and exchange rates those benefits expected by Canada from the agreements are vanishing (says an Ottawa message). One ot his chief concerns will be to investigate the recent failure of a delegation from British Columbia lumbermen, who visited London only to find English importers entering into longer and larger contracts with Baltic timber producers. From all parts of Canada, esjrecially from the western prairie farmers, are coining demands for a mild inflation of currency, at least following the course of the sterling, which, if the present debt negotiations with the United States fail, is expected to be still further depressed in terms of United States currency. It may be that Canada will, before long, abandon the gold standard, and the Canadian dollar may next year stand at about 00 cents in relation to United States currency. One great objection to this policy is the commitment of the Canadian Federal Government and the provinces to repayment of loans in New York funds.

On the other hand, a further decline in sterling will totally extinguish any profit the Canadian exporter can get under the conference agreements.