Big Failure; Small Success

The series of trade congresses, conferences and conventions in the past decade has proved that three nations can sometimes agree to do one another good, but four or more, seldom or never.

By last week the delegates of 21 nations at the World Wheat Conference in London had talked themselves dry. Most of them wanted arbitrarily to boost the export price of wheat 10%. Leaders of this faction were three great wheat-sellers: Canada, Australia and the U. S. Drought in those lands had reduced the wheat crop, already boosted the price. Last August's Conference had given them such adequate export quotas for the current year (Canada: 200,000,000 bu.; Australia: 105,000,000; the U. S.: 47,000,000) that they were willing to give up part of them. Opposed to the principle of dear wheat was Great Britain, a great wheat-buying nation. Argentina (quota: 110,000,000 bu.) was willing to accept a higher price for its wheat on condition that its quota be raised this year 40,000,000 bu. Perfect weather had produced a bumper crop overflowing Argentina's limited granaries. The Argentines want to unload at any price. The three other big wheat-selling countries offered to lend Argentina 20,000,000 bu. of their quotas, provided she would reduce her acreage.

But drought and fair weather had hopelessly split the delegates. And Britain's Sir Herbert Robson, head of the London Grain Exchange, split them further by growling: "I view with deep concern the increasing interference of governments with international trade. . . . The delegates are very charming diplomats, but very few of them know anything about wheat." Finally last week Argentina's Delegate Tomas A. Le Breton broke up the meeting by handing in Argentina's flat refusal to join in a minimum price agreement. That produced the climax all members had long been expecting. A subcommittee was named to inter the remains of the Wheat Conference.

Over the corpse floated straightway last week a threat from U. S. Secretary of Agriculture Wallace. Speaking before the University of Georgia's Institute of Public Affairs, he proposed to open U. S. granaries' shoots and flood the world with cheap wheat, unless Argentina agrees to bargain. "The U. S." said he, "can meet with its surplus wheat any kind of competition that might be established by other nations and at the same time aid the co-operative growers to get comparative prices for the portion of the crop domestically consumed."

Far different was the meeting in Rome of the experts whom Italy's Mussolini, Austria's Dollfuss and Hungary's Goembbs had named to draw up an economic agreement to implement their Three Power Pact (TIME, March 26). Last week the experts had something to show. Austria and Italy had agreed to buy most of Hungary's surplus wheat at a fixed minimum price of 92.6-c- a bu.; Hungary and Italy, to buy Austria's lumber and wood-pulp; Austria and Hungary to lower tariffs 10% on any goods that pass through Italy's ports of Fiume and Trieste; Hungary to give Austria and Italy big tariff preferences.

This walloping five weeks' work sent a wave of dismay through Germany and France. Austria had officially become Italy's little brother, safe for a while from German Nazi aggression. France had lost a major engagement to Mussolini, whose power fanned suddenly over all central Europe.

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