This chapter, like the preceding one, concentrates upon the monetary side of the World Conference that gathered in June 1933. We are chiefly interested in the relations between Britain and the overseas sterling area, especially India and the Dominions. To make sense of these interimperial interactions we need to follow certain developments at the conference itself. The first section of the chapter therefore traces the increasingly odd behavior of the Americans and the increasingly vigorous importunities of the French. In the second section we shall see how Empire delegates, ill informed but concerned about Britain's policy, demanded a change of direction and how Chamberlain devised a verbal response for the sake of Empire solidarity.

Problems with the French and the Americans

The conference assembled on 12 June 1933. There was the usual mixture of plenary sessions, committee and subcommittee work, and informal discussion behind the scenes. Outside the conference proper were the conversations on currency stabilization. These conversations were conducted between treasuries and central banks. Only Britain, France, and the United States were involved. The purpose was not to peg the three moneys permanently to one another, or to gold, but rather to devise a formula for their temporary alignment during the term of the conference only.

The interbank conversations were conducted against a background of gathering gloom. The dollar was depreciating steadily against gold, and speculators were moving funds from the smaller gold-standard countries of Europe.