MR LLOYD GEORGE ROUSED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19011, 6 November 1923, Page 7

MR LLOYD GEORGE ROUSED

“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, “I ranee must beware of her friends,” and warned Rt. 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 cur friendship for France. “I am a sincere friend of France. For four and a-half 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 I? ranee 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?” His reception at St. Louis equalled the wonderful welcome which Chicago gave Mr Lloyd George, who is paying attention to his wife’s admonitions to curtail his programme for his health’s sake. When Mrs Lloyd George discovered that several of the corespondents who were travelling with the party had accompanied President Harding on his fatal tour, she plied them with questions as to the late President’s symptoms following overwork and excessive speaking. “Mv husband did not come to America to make a speaking tour,” she complained, adding; “He nqw finds himself in the midst of something like a political campaign.”