Mr. Runyon to Mr. Gresham.
Berlin, April 5, 1895. (Received April 19.)
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that the special convention of the German Commercial Congress (Handelstag), referred to in the resolution passed at its general convention, reported in the last paragraph of my dispatch, No. 210, of February 23 last, took place yesterday.
[Page 510]On the evening before about seventy prominent members of the German commercial world, following the example of the Agrarians on February 19 last, when the German Bimetallist League was formed, had met and organized an association for the protection of the German gold currency (Verein zum Schutze der deutschen Goldwährung).
At the convention, after several speeches, all in favor of the gold standard, and after a statement that, in reply to a circular, all but four of the chambers of commerce in Germany had voted to maintain the gold currency, a resolution was unanimously adopted, in which the resolution of February 22 last (referred to above) was “confirmed after repeated and exhaustive consideration,” and in which confidence was expressed in the declaration made by the Imperial chancellor in Parliament on February 15 last (see my dispatch No. 204) that “the Government would consider no measures which would be prejudicial to the existing currency system.”
A resolution declaring the impracticability of Count Kanitz’s proposal to create a Government grain monopoly, which was recently quite severely handled in the Prussian Staatsrath and House of Lords, and in the Imperial Parliament, was also unanimously passed.
I have, etc.,