Vossische Zeitung
- Britain's Secret Foreign Policy
- What Does the Economic Manifesto Mean?
- Work Continues in Geneva
This page of the Vossische Zeitung for 21 October 1926 placed the opening of the Imperial Conference in London next to the international business world's call for free trade. From London, its correspondent reported that the conference had decided at its first session not to publish Chamberlain's foreign-policy speech or the Dominion prime ministers' statements on British foreign policy since 1923, and he read this secrecy as a sign of delicate disagreements. From Paris, the paper reported that the International Chamber of Commerce had endorsed the world economic leaders' manifesto for restoring freedom of trade. From Geneva, it reported that League of Nations circles welcomed the manifesto. It noted that members of the League's Economic and Financial Committee were among the signatories, and that League circles hoped the many British signatures would sway a hesitant British government before the 15 November preparatory talks for an international economic conference.
Translation
Britain's Secret Foreign Policy
The Dominions' uncomfortable criticism
News service of the Vossische Zeitung
whe London, 20 October
The difficult and delicate problems that will come up for discussion at the British Imperial Conference are expressed most aptly in the decision taken at yesterday's opening session not to publish Chamberlain's speech on foreign policy, nor the statements that followed from the prime ministers of the Dominions setting out their fundamental position on the conduct of British foreign policy from the Imperial Conference of 1923 to the present day. Before …
What Does the Economic Manifesto Mean?
lst Paris, 20 October
News service of the Vossische Zeitung
The declaration issued by the economic leaders of the whole world for securing economic peace through the restoration of freedom of trade today won the endorsement of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. The Council of the Chamber, which is currently in session in Paris, states in a communiqué handed to the press this afternoon: On the proposal of the president of the German …
Work Continues in Geneva
jb Geneva, 20 October
In the relevant circles of the League of Nations, the manifesto of international high finance meets with undivided approval. Several members of the League's Economic and Financial Committee, incidentally, are among the signatories of the manifesto, for example the Englishman Sir Arthur Balfour, the Frenchman Peyerimhoff, the Swede Markus Wallenberg, the Czechoslovak bank director Pospischil, the Dutch financier ter Meuren, and others. Here the manifesto is expected above all to exert a beneficial influence on the negotiations of the League of Nations committee for the preparation of the international economic conference, scheduled for 15 November, and it is especially counted upon that the large number of important English signatures will not remain without influence on the hesitant attitude of the English government toward the economic conference. The dele…
Context
The 1926 Imperial Conference and Its Closed Opening Session
The London dispatch concerns the fifth Imperial Conference, which brought together the prime ministers of the Dominions of the British Empire and met in London from 19 October to 23 November 1926. The "yesterday's opening session" in a report dated 20 October is therefore the conference's first day. The conference had been timed to follow directly after the 1926 Assembly of the League of Nations in Geneva so that Dominion representatives would have less travelling to do. The paper reports as fact that Chamberlain's foreign-policy speech and the Dominion premiers' statements on British foreign policy since 1923 were withheld from publication, and it treats that decision as proof of difficult problems. The records cited here do not reveal what those confidential statements said, so the headline's "uncomfortable criticism" remains the paper's interpretation rather than an established account of the debate.
Equal Status and the Locarno Question in the Committee Report
The 1926 conference is remembered for the Balfour Declaration, which laid down the principle that the Dominions are all equal in status. The conference's Inter-Imperial Relations Committee defined Great Britain and the Dominions as communities "in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs." The formula thus extended explicitly to foreign affairs, the very field in which the Vossische Zeitung reported Dominion reservations about British policy. The same secret committee report lists "The Policy of Locarno" among the particular aspects of foreign relations that the committee discussed. This confirms that Locarno policy was a matter for imperial consultation behind closed doors. However, the record does not show how far Dominion criticism of it shaped the wording of the declaration, and the paper's report of that criticism should be read as contemporary reporting, not as proof of cause and effect.
The Bankers' Free-Trade Manifesto and Its Later Reputation
The Paris and Geneva reports deal with the October 1926 declaration in which leading figures of business and finance called for the restoration of freedom of trade. The paper reports that the Council of the International Chamber of Commerce endorsed it, that League of Nations circles welcomed it, and that members of the League's Economic and Financial Committee were among the signatories; those details rest on the paper's own reporting. The manifesto remained a reference point in international argument. In his political report to the Fifteenth Congress of the Soviet Communist Party, Stalin looked back on "the bankers' declaration in 1926 about free trade" and claimed that it had ended in a fiasco. Stalin made the remark while arguing that capitalist rivalry over markets was leading toward new wars, so his verdict is a partisan polemic and not a neutral assessment of what the manifesto achieved.
From the Geneva Preparatory Committee to the 1927 World Economic Conference
The preparatory work mentioned in the Geneva dispatch led to the World Economic Conference, which met in Geneva from 4 to 23 May 1927. The Irish delegation to that conference explained in its report that it had been summoned not so much to devise plans for increasing production as to promote international trade, the same goal the 1926 manifesto had proclaimed. The delegation also concluded that the advocacy of the ablest and best-known men in commerce, industry and finance determined the complexion of the report the conference adopted. That judgement fits the hope recorded in Geneva in October 1926 that prominent business signatures, especially British ones, would carry weight with governments. The 15 November date for the preparatory committee's talks comes from the paper and is not confirmed by the records cited here.
Original
Englands geheime Außenpolitik
Die unbequeme Kritik der Dominions Nachrichtendienst der " Vossischen Zeitung " whe London, 20. Oktober Die schwierigen und delikaten Probleme, die auf der englischen Reichskonferenz zur Erörterung gelangen werden, kommen in dem in der gestrigen Eröffnungssitzung gefaßten Beschluß am treffendsten zum Ausdruck, die Rede Chamberlains über die Außenpolitik und die anschließenden Erklärungen der Premierminister der Dominions über ihre grundsätzliche Stellungnahme zu der bisherigen Führung der englischen Außenpolitik von der Reichskonferenz im Jahre 1923 bis heute, nicht zu veröffentlichen. Vor
Was bedeutet das Wirtschaftsmanifest?
lst Paris, 20. Oktober Nachrichtendienst der " Vossischen Zeitung " Die von den Wirtschaftsführern der ganzen Welt ausgegangene Kundgebung zur Sicherung des Wirtschaftsfriedens durch Wiederherstellung der Handelsfreiheit hat heute die Zustimmung der Internationalen Handelskammer in Paris gefunden. Der Verwaltungsrat der Handelskammer, der augenblicklich in Paris tagt, teilt in einem heute nachmittag der Presse übergebenen Communiqué mit: Auf Vorschlag des Präsidenten der deutschen Ab -
Weiterarbeit in Genf
jb Genf, 20. Oktober In den zuständigen Kreisen des Völkerbundes findet das Manifest der internationalen Großfinanz ungeteilte Zustimmung. Verschiedene Mitglieder der Wirtschaftsund Finanzkommission des Völkerbundes gehören übrigens zu den Unterzeichnern des Manifestes wie z. B. der Engländer Sir Arthur Balfour, der Franzose Peyerimhoff, der Schwede Markus Wallenberg, der tschechoslowakische Bankdirektor Pospischil, der holländische Finanzmann ter Meuren usw. Man erhofft hier von dem Manifest vor allem einen wohltätigen Einfluß auf die für den 15. November angesetzten Verhandlungen der Völkerbundskommission für die Vorbereitung der internationalen Wirtschaftskonferenz und rechnet besonders darauf, daß die große Zahl bedeutsamer englischer Unterschriften auf die zögernde Haltung der englischen Regierung gegenüber der Wirtschaftskonferenz nicht ohne Einfluß bleiben wird. Die Dele -