Crowded Hours

It had been nine months since a Canadian Minister of the Crown had visited Washington; last week, in 27 quickstepping hours, Finance Minister Douglas Abbott made up for the lapse. He was in town to sign the agreement (reached two months ago) for a $300 million Export-Import Bank loan to help tide the Dominion over its dollar shortage. He also had people to see.

At the Metropolitan Club, Abbott chatted with his good friend Lewis Douglas, U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's and onetime Principal of McGill University (Douglas was helping to sell the European Recovery Program to Congress, and Canada's economy is linked to the fate of ERP). Then, in jig time, Abbott had a Doug-&-John chat with Treasury Secretary Snyder, called on Federal Reserve Chairman Marriner Eccles, dined with Director Camille Gutt of the International Monetary Fund.

For his fiscal friends, Abbott had good news: the dollar conservation program worked fine during December--even better than he had expected.

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