LLOYD GEORGE’S TRIP

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 November 1923, Page 2

LLOYD GEORGE’S TRIP

AMERICAN PRESS COMMENTS.

(Australian and N.Z, Cable Association) NEW YORK, November 5. Editorial comment on the result of Mr Lloyd George’s tour varies. Some newspapers mix words of personal esteem with expression of doubt regarding his influence in AmericaOthers declare that the Welshman had his eye on the coming British elections, and his remarks were not so much addressed to the Americans as to the English voter.

The “Chicago Tribune’’ strikes an extremely pessimistic note. It says that when Mr Lloyd George came over, we did not exactly know for what he had come, but we know now; he has persuaded the British that he is their next Premier, and the Ameri•ins that when Britain has gone to war with France, America should cast Is great might on the side of Britain. The “New York Tribune” says: Nobody doubts Mr Lloyd George’s heart is in the right place, but it seems a pity his tongue knows so many things that are not so. The “Boston Herald” remarks : The personal reasons which inspired the trip were those which might move any other man, but concerning what he accomplished, events will have to answer the question. “FRANCE’S FALSE FRIEND.” NEW YORK, October 23. In a speech of great vigour, delivered to an enthusiastic audience at a luncheon at St. Louis, Mr. Lloyd George replied to the imputation that he was “the false friend of France,” made yesterday by General Georges Dumont, of the French Embassy at Washington. General Dumont had said with a wink, “France must beware of her friends,” and “warned” St. Louis that a friend of France was coming.

“General Dumont,” said Mr. Lloyd George, “told Washington people yesterday, ‘we pray to the Lord to protect us from our friends,’ but I never heard that prayer between 1914 and 1918. I shall never forget the agonised prayer of the French Ambassador in 1914 to his friends in England. “That there are nearly 1,000,000 dead throughout the British Empire is proof of our friendship for France.

‘I am a sincere friend of France. For four and a-lialf years I devoted all my strength to organising every resource of the British Empire to help France in her agony. To-day 1,250,000 of our best workmen are eating the bread of charity because we went to the aid of France in 1914. “We have the right to give advice,” Mr. Lloyd George continued. “We have the right to say that we were friends, but that our sacrifices shall not be made to perpetuate strife and hatred.

“General Dumont declares that Germany is shamming regarding her ability to pay reparations. Well, that can easily be ascertained, if it is true. Mr. Hughes has suggested the scientific plan of a commission of economic experts to determine Germany’s ability to pay. What objection can any gallant Frenchman have to a commission like that, in which the Impartial United States would be represented?”