Deals & Developments

Collapse in the Waldorf, For three weeks Dutch, English, Russian and U. S. oilmen gathered almost daily in Room No. 2604 of Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria, seeking to reach an agreement by which markets could be kept steady, profitable. Last week the conference broke up without results. Secrecy hid all the conference's deliberations but reasons given for the breakdown by oilmen were numerous: 1) The Russians would make no agreement for more than three years, the defensive Englishmen and Americans sought a ten-year pact. 2) The Russians declined to limit exports to the 1931 level, refused to give up their distributing facilities in England, Germany, Spain. 3) There was lack of unanimity between the U. S. and British groups, lack of agreement between members of the U. S. group.

Silk to Storehouse, Recently Japan decided to sell its surplus silk stock to E. Gerli & Co., Manhattan, for $16,320,000 (TIME, May 9). Since then raw silk prices have dropped $30 a bale, lopping $3,221,000 off the surplus' value. Last week Japan announced that the deal was off, that the Japanese Government would buy the surplus from its Department of Agriculture for $14,600,000, paying in bonds.

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