Sir George's Indiscretion

In a U. S. Senate committee room one day last fortnight, Montana's Senator Burt Wheeler sat lunching from a tray with a spare, tall, white-mustachioed Scotsman, who had asked to see him. The Senator's mistrustful eyes looked grimmer and grimmer as he heard what his visitor had to say. But he listened on. His visitor was an eminent British economist, pink-cheeked, 72-year-old Sir George Paish. Three hours later, as the Scotsman took his leave, Senator Wheeler turned an amazed stare on two stenographers in the reception room outside, exclaimed: "What do you think that old gentleman just told me?"

Last week Burt Wheeler told the Senate. Said Wheeler: "He [Sir George Paish] . . . said to me, 'Senator, the American people have never denied a request that I made of them. . . .' He said to me, 'I am responsible for getting the United States into the last war . . . and I am going to get this country into this war. . . .' He is urging that 50 destroyers be given to Great Britain. He is urging that the Johnson Act [forbidding loans to nations which have defaulted on their debts to the U. S.] be repealed. He was very, very frank about it. . . ."

Interrupting, Minnesota's Senator Ernest Lundeen (see p. 17) declared: "I think the gentleman referred to ... should be deported from the United States." Said peppery old Senator Carter Glass of Virginia: ". . . If there is not a law to deport him, he should be deported anyway."

No official mission was Sir George's visit. He arrived via Canada last July, planned to begin a six-month lecture tour in November. He did not register as an agent of a foreign power. Three weeks ago he was a guest at the White House. Sir George last week did not deny that he had spoken the words Burt Wheeler repeated in the Senate. But he thought that the Senator had misunderstood his intentions.

The British Embassy in Washington quickly "advised" Sir George to go back to Britain as fast as he could get there.

Isolationist Senators took advantage of Sir George's remarks to demand an investigation of all British propagandists in the U. S. The State Department and the FBI promised to look into Sir George's activities. A member of the Embassy staff told the Washington Post: "We wish someone would drop Sir George Paish over Germany as a pamphlet."

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