Summary: |
Preparations for and attendance at the International Conference on Reparations in Paris as British financial expert on the Young Plan and subsequent establishment of the Bank for International Settlements. The daily record of events at the Paris conference is brief, outlining the progress of formal and informal negotiations and also mentioning social engagements and theatre and concert visits. On his return to London Addis resumes Bank of England duties as well as attending Wireless and Cable meetings, Boxer Indemnity discussions and visiting the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) and the Foreign Office. He also continues to go to Paris for Bank of Morocco meetings and to Berlin for Reichsbank meetings and to include notes on social life and family affairs.
JANUARY 'Busy in the city - Reparations - Wireless Merger - League of Nations Gold Committee - Manchuria and finally Ernest Franklin who talked till 5 p.m.', 7; longstanding problem of chairman of the Imperial and International Communication Company settled with the appointment of Sir Basil Blackett; to Foreign Office to discuss Boxer Indemnity; to Berlin.
FEBRUARY Attends Committee of Treasury meeting on increase in the bank rate and the failure of the British Italian Bank; to Paris with Revelstoke, Norman and Sir Josiah Stamp, statistician, for Reparations Conference, Addis appointed to meet the press; many formal and informal meetings, also concert and theatre visits.
MARCH In Paris, visit from wife; brief return to London for Bank of England, Foreign Office and Cable board meetings; to Berlin.
APRIL Son Tom starts new employment in insurance; Addis in Paris with 'Experts in a fine tangle', 6; to Berlin.
MAY In Paris where 'Tempers are running high and nerves getting ragged', 22; agreement reached at end of month.
JUNE Return to London; Committee of Treasury. Bank of England court and Tuesday Club meetings and visits to the Foreign Office especially about the Boxer Indemnity; 'to 10 Downing Street where we [Stamp and Addis] were heckled for a couple of hours on the Young Plan report by the Prime Minister', 25.
JULY Working on the organisation of the Bank for International Settlements; also at meetings of the Royal Institute of International Affairs on China, the Committee of Treasury, Wireless and Cable, British and Chinese Corporation (B&C Corp.)., the Court of London University; purchase of first car; son-in-law Dan Bernard to be on London Committee of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC); to Hartrigge, Scotland for family holiday.
AUGUST At Hartrigge; to Berlin; to the Hague, Holland for meeting on Reichsbank law.
SEPTEMBER At Hartrigge 'six letters from Norman in little over a week. What a holiday', 6; return of son Charles; continuing work on Reichsbank law and the Bank for International Settlements; to the Hague, Amsterdam, Berlin and Baden-Baden for meetings on the establishment of the Bank for International Settlements.
OCTOBER In Baden-Baden for formal and informal meetings, dinners, concerts and the theatre; visit from wife and four children and some sightseeing.
NOVEMBER In Baden-Baden 'it is a mercy how I keep well working almost incessantly 15 hours a day. But we are making progress and that is the main thing', 4; in London meets Jun Ke-chou, representing the Chinese railway minister, 'He is all talk and no substance, like so many of these western educated Chinese', 19; to Paris and Berlin.
DECEMBER Continued discussions on the Bank for International Settlements; to Paris; Committee of Treasury meeting, 'The air is full of impending trouble. We at the Bank will have a lot to do in saving and rationalizing derelict concerns.' 18.
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