The American Ambassador, in an address to the Liverpool Chamber
of Commerce on Thursday, November 3rd, declared that Lord Derby's hopes, expressed in a speech two days earlier, for a Franco-British Alliance which the United States might join were futile. Washington's distrust of permanent alliances had been reaffirmed by almost all his successors, including President Harding, and had been confirmed at the last Presi- dential election by an overwhelming majority. Colonel Harvey said that he was stating " a wholly obvious and unescapable fact '' when he pronounced t' the entrance of the United States into any permanent alliance, however desirable that alliance may .seem to be, an utter impossibility." The mere proposal of an alliance, he thought, " could hardly serve any purpose other than to feed the enemies and distress the friends of both Groat Britain and France who live in America."
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