AMERICAN SOLDIERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21233, 13 July 1932, Page 9

AMERICAN SOLDIERS.

LLOYD GEORGE'S REMARKS.

REVELATION OF THE WAR.

NEW YORK, July 11

Mr. Newton D. Baker, who was Secretary of War in the Wilson Cabinet, has revealed in a letter to Colonel Lloyd C. Griscom, formerly liaison officer between General Pershing and the British War Office, that Mr. Lloyd George at one time apparently desired the removal of General Pershing as Commander-in-Chief of the American forces. Mr. Baker wroto that the war-time Prime Minister at the conclusion of a dinner in London in 1918, " with vehement emphasis," complaineld that the United States Army in France was of no service to the British at all, in spite of the fact that Britain had stripped the necessary Empire services of ships in order to carry the United States troops to France.

Mr. George said the Americans had scarcely got to France before General Pershing pulled them away from the British lino into his own custody in another part of the line. Mr. Baker said he had replied that from his own observation on the front lines he was convinced that the American troops at least were detaining so many German divisions which might otherwise be added to the concentration against the French and British, and countered with an offer to discontinue the transportation of American soldiers on British ships and to move only such forces as could be carried on American vessels.

" Next morning," Mr. Baker recalled, " Lord Reading said, ' Mr. Lloyd George asked me to say to you that you should think no more about the matter which he raised for discussion last night at the dinner.' "