U.S. INTERESTS IN FRANCE

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24369, 22 September 1944, Page 8

U.S. INTERESTS IN FRANCE

ALLEGED ENTRY OF BUSINESSMEN

“DAILY MAIL” CRITICISES ALLIED HEADQUARTERS (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 21 Statements that representatives of American business interests are entering France with the American forces and auxiliaries is featured by the “Daily Mail” in an article. It says: “Unless quick action is taken and explanations made, grave misunderstanding is going to arise between Britain and America, centring on industrial and commercial rivalries which are now in danger of overshadowing their common aims in war. . .

“Agreements into which Britain entered for purely military purposes have been cynically exploited by certain American interests for purely commercial reasons. In one case, it is alleged, one of the first American units landing in France took in, in the uniform of a Red Cross officer, the representative of a very powerful financial corporation. Less than 48 hours after the Allied entry into Paris, it is said, this gentleman had disappeared from the Army and was sitting in an office in Paris. He had changed into civilian clothes and was busy with clients. “Since then, responsible people report observing a stream of American businessmen passing through England on the way to the French capital. A whole plane-load, it is stated, on one occasion crossed the Atlantic together.

“It is learned that the British Chamber of Commerce was one of the first organisations to ask permission to return to Paris. It had permission from the British Government, but the permission was overruled by Supreme Allied Headquarters. It is, even at this juncture, denied entry to Paris. “The organisation of Supreme Headquarters is such that the question of permits to enter France rests almost entirely on the decision and the goodwill of American officers. Nobody seemed to realise before D Day that this would be the case. It has been apparent since.”

The Paris correspondent of the “Daily Mail” says: “Since the liberation of Paris a very large number of American civilians have been here, finding time amid other duties to indulge to the full in the well-known American penchant for epergetic private enterprise. These civilians are provided with American officers’ uniforms, but without badges of rank.”

REPORTS DENIED IN U.S.

GOVERNMENT AND RED CROSS STATEMENTS

(Rec. 11.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, Sept. 21. The Washington correspondent of the, “Herald-Tribune” says: -“The United States War Department, the State Department, the Foreign Economic Administration, and the American Red Cross have joined in an emphatic denial that American commercial travellers are being granted travel priorities to Europe, particularly to France, as reported by the London ‘Daily Mail.’ “The State Department said that many civilians had applied for passports to Europe for commercial purposes, but all had been turned down “Red Cross officials said they would like to know the identity of the person whom the ‘Daily Mai)’ charged with entering France wearing a Red Cross uniform and opening a business office two days later in civilian clothes. ‘W t would clear that up in two minutes if we had the name,’ they said.”