Letter from Frederick H. Boland to Seán Nunan (Dublin)¹

It may be taken as certain, I think, that a high level Commonwealth conference on trade and financial policy will be held in London in the autumn. Mr. Berthoud² of the Foreign Office told me yesterday that arrangements for the holding of such a conference are under way. When I was with Sir Percivale Liesching today, I enquired whether the rumour that such a conference was to be held was correct. He said it was; the necessary consultations with other Commonwealth Governments were not yet complete and it was not yet certain that all the Ministers concerned would be able to get away; subject to that, the conference would be held some time in the autumn. The matter had been discussed with Mr. Menzies when he was here and the conference was really his idea; unfortunately, he had not been able to keep quiet about it with the result that British Ministers had found themselves faced with parliamentary questions which, as all the Commonwealth replies had not been received, they were not in a position to answer.

I asked Sir Percivale whether the conference would cover economic and commercial policy as well as financial policy. He said that this was the idea although he hoped that the meeting would not assume quite the proportions of the famous Ottawa conference in 1932!

Referring to the conference, Mr. Berthoud observed:

‘I suppose that, being no longer associated with the Commonwealth, you people will hardly be represented at it’ – an observation on which I made no comment. Sir Percivale Liesching made the remark that he expected that some of the matters discussed at the conference would probably be of some interest to us and he hoped it would be possible to arrange a ‘parallel’ exchange of views with us as was done after the meeting of Commonwealth Finance Ministers in January.