The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-16
Representatives of All Allied Nations Make Up ''the In- ternati0nal War Supplies Committee
NOT A DOLLAR SPENT
 WITHOUT OFFICIAL
 SANCTION OF BODY
Great Britain, As Banker For Allies, Dominates the Committee = Eng a n d Grants Huge Loan

New York. october 16-Of the millions of dollars spent daily in this country by the allies for war supplies, not dollar, it was learned today. can be spent with out first obtaining the official sanction of the British government.
 This sanction is obtained from a com frequent sessions. Although the commit tee has been in operation for many months, its existence heretofore has not been known generally outside of gov ernmental circles Only once, so far as can be learned-and then in the case of Russia--has the mandate of this body been diregarded
 The personnel of this committee has never been published and probabl never will be- 1t consists however, of repre- sentatives of the allied nations from Great Britain to Montenegro. controls absolutely the purchase of all war sup plies in whatever part of the world they may be bought, acts as a financial check and supervisor over all the war chests of all the allies, and seeks to elimi- nate positively competitive bidding on the part of the allies for war supplies in the open markets of the world first of all in the United States. Over pur- chases made in home markets the com mittee holds no supervision.
 The committee is designated by French title. the English translation of which is the international war supplies committee
 Allies Do Not Compete
 Under it's guidance Great Britain, France. Russia and Italy, seeking sup plies in the United States, refrain from competition in bidding. Competition, if permitted, the committee realized, would send prices to prohibitve levels. In- stead of waging a financial contest for supremacy ir obtaining the supplies. the allies have adopted a system of placing one big order at a time in this country. ! When the contract for this order is signed, the next allied nations needs are taken mp and another contract is placed. This system is maintained un- ti' all the allied nations purchasing sup plies here are cared for.
 Great Britain, as banker of the allies dominates the committed British pur- Ihases, where convenient, are made in this country, without consulting the com mittee. Only in the most perfunctory way does the committee keep track of British supplies bought here. Another department of the government attends to this.
 England's Financial Operation
 One of the chief functions of the Brit ish members of the committee Is to act as mouthpece of the British trea sury in allotting to the-other allied nations the amounts advanced to them by Great Britain for the parcbase of war supplies in this country Each country is financed to certain extent-in the case of Rus sia, almost wholly-by Great Britain.
 The only time the committees plan failed of opera tion was about six months ago and the effects of the failure have rot vet been eradicated This was in connection with purchases by Russia in the United States.
 Russia has been notified by British members of the committee that she might spend a certain sum of money for war supplies in this country. The sum is believed to have been between $200 900. 900 and s3O0.oooo0o Whether the allotment was fully understood by the Russian government is not known; but what Rus sia did was to spend the sum allotted and. in addition, make huge commit ments in this country for further sup plies. These commitments, covering many months, were said to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
 Unauthorized Contracts
 In making these contracts Russia ap- parently failed to consult the commit tee When the contracts came due, in part, Russia had insufficient funds to meet them and the committee, not hav- ing authorized the making of the con tracts had to devise quickly some meth cd of paying the bills This was diff cult and the demoraligation of the for eign exchange markets ip this country recently was attributed in no small meas- ure to this cause.
 Since that time Russia has adhered strictly to the wishes of the committee. Not a dollars worth of war supplies are purchased by her in this country with out the committees approval. In return, Great Britain is paying her bills here. Not only these bills, but those of Italy and more recently France. are being paid today by Great Britain.
 4 single financial house-J. P Morgan & Co.-acts as the disbursing agency of the British government in this country It's disbursements are understood to cover payments of all goods purcha sed for the allies here The $500, ,0O0000 An elo- French credit loan just negotiated 1t is said. will provide payment for a 1 large quantity of goods purchased here for Russia. The goods have been or will be shipped to Russia, but the bill will go to Eng land Some experts estimate that as much, as half of the loan. or s250. .000, GOO, 1aay be used in paying for supplies for Russia chiefly for those for which she contracted without the Knowledge of the international committee.