AMERICA AND LEAGUE.

New Zealand Herald, 23 May 1921, Page 5

AMERICA AND LEAGUE.

COLONEL HARVEY'S SPEECH.

PRESIDENT EMBARRASSED. A. and N.Z. NEW YORK, May 20.

The Washington correspondent of the New York Evening World states that the President and the Secretary of State, 0. E. Hughes, are embarrassed by the speech of Colonel George Harvey, the new American Ambassador to Great Britain, on the occasion of the dinner tendered him by the pilgrims' Club in London. It appears that Colonel Harvey's speech •was not submitted to Washington for approval before it was delivered. The correspondent declares that had it been submitted certain passages would have been toned down. As the situation stands the Administration can say nothing without seeming to disapprove of the appointment of its own-ambassador. Officials generally are surprised at Colonel Har : vey's statement regarding the League of Nations, as he went further than the President or Mr. Hughes has ever gone in public declarations.

Speakers at the Presbyterian General Assembly, now sitting at Winona Lake, Indiana, denounced Colonel Harvey's speech. Dr. B. A. Atkinson, head of the World Alliance, an inter-denominational body working for world peace, declared that if Colonel Harvey's statement that America entered the war for her own interests was true, hundreds of American soldiers died under false pretences.

_ According to the cabled summary published on Saturday, Colonel Harvey, the new American Ambassador to "Britain, speaking in! London, said that he was authorised to participate in the proceedings of the Supreme Council upon the question of Upper Silesia. The President had declared that the United States must play a full part in promoting world peace. In view of the decision of the American people, the American, Government would have nothing to do with the League of Nations. Colonel Harvey added that the United States stood ready to work with Britain because it was to the advantage of both to do so. He would fail miserably in his mission and disappoint Mr, Harding if he did not greatly strengthen the existing bonds of friendship and mu-tual-helpfulness, so that hereafter both Governments would instinctively approach all world-problems from the same angle as of a common and inseparable concern.