At a meeting of the Socialist Party Committee in Berlin on May 31, according to the Vorwärts, Friedrich Ebert, Vice President of the Social Democrats, announced that the party leaders had indirectly received a copy of the Entente Socialist memorandum on war aims. Philipp Scheidemann declared that the aims of the Entente Socialists were to a great extent in complete accord with the annexationist aims of the Entente Governments. The committee adopted a resolution pledging continued adherence to the Reichstag peace resolution of July, 1917, which declared for no annexations and no indemnities. Trade After the War The State Department at Washington announced on June 5, 1918, that it had appointed an economic representative, who was to join the American Embassy at Rome. This was regarded as the first step in a general policy of more active participation by the United States in preparations of the nations at war with Germany for the after-the-war trade struggle. The new treaty of alliance between Germany and Austria to control all Central European sources of raw materials, and to exclude other nations from equal trade privileges, with similar restrictions imposed by the new treaties forced on Finland, Ukrainia, and Rumania, changed the attitude of the American Government, which at first had not assented to the proposals of the Paris Economic Conference to interpose artificial obstructions to free commerce with the Central Powers after the war. The Italian Government recently named a commission to study after-the-war problems, and with this commission the American economic delegate will have close relations. Italian importing and exporting interests in the United States also have taken advantage of the opportunity afforded by the decision of the Italian Government to consider this important subject, and have joined in the dispatch of a committee to Italy to co-operate. Italian industries, though of great potential strength and capable of returning large profits on their capitalization, are said to require substantial assistance from America if they are to go on after the war without relapsing into the control of German financiers. It is reported that economic representatives will be sent to the American Embassies in all the allied capitals. On May 14 Mr. Bonar Law, British Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced in the House of Commons that, in order to leave its country's hands free for the time when peace arrived, the French Government had denounced all commercial conventions containing a general clause regarding "most-favored nations"; and that, in view of the probable scarcity of raw material after the war and the necessity for providing for the needs of the British Empire and the Allies, the British Government intended to adopt a similar course.