AMERICAN ANSWER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18346, 12 March 1923, Page 7

AMERICAN ANSWER.

MISAPPREHENSION ALLEGED. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. CRecd. 4.5 p.m.) WASHINGTON. March 9. State Department officials declined to comment on Lord Balfour's speech. They said they regretted a revival of the controversy, and since Colonel Harvey was not acting upon instructions of the State Department, they did not believe that the dispute was a matter of concern to the United States Government. The truth of Colonel Harvey's assertions rested between himself and Lord Balfour. Mr. W. G. McAdoo, who was Treasurer in Mr. Wilson's Administration, stated to-day: "I am at a loss to understand how Lord Balfour, for whom I have great respect and admiration, could have gained the impression that the United States insisted in the substance if not in form that, alhough Britain's allies were to spend the money, it was only on Britain's security that tlio United States was prepared to lend. Its loans to the Allies were made through me as Secretary to the Treasury at the time. It was never suggested or intimated by me or Lord Balfour in my discussions with him as head of the British Mission to the United States in | May, 1917, that Britain should assume any responsibility whatever for loans the United States might make to other Governments than Britain. "Every loan made to Britain, France, Italy and Belgium was made on faith of the credit of each respectively and independently of the others, except in so far as an intelligent effort was made to distribute available credits among them in such a way as would best secure their effective use for war purposes."