Evening star., 1924-12-31
BRITISH BANK HEAD
IN j. S. ON MISSION
Mystery Surrounds Sudden
Arrival of Montagu Norman
and Colleague.
By the Associated Press,

BY the Associated Press
With the question of war debts al
| ready enveloped in a dense fog of
conjecture and diplomatic reticence,
two Englishmen. officials of the Bank
OF England, have added a new first
class mystery to the picture by ap-
pearing unheralded in New York, ac-
companied by a flock of vari-colored
rumors.
The visitors are Montagu Norman
governor of the bank, and Sir Allan
Garrett Anderson, one of its directors.
Important as they are in British fin-
| ancial life they succeeded in crossing
the Atlantic without a hint of their
departure appearing in English news
papers, and now have appeared on
the horizon of official Washington as
| factor whose Importance can only
| be surmised
Mission Not Explained.
The State Department today dis
claimed any previous knowledge of
the visit. the Treasury followed suit.
and the British embassy insisted that
its nrst information came from this
mornings newspapers. Reports that
the debt situation would be discussed
during the presence of the two dis
t1ngufshed British financial authori-
ties IN the United States were met
everywhere in Washington with dec
larations of complete ignorance.
But there was no official who sought
TO entirely dismiss the possibility that
Mr Norman and Sir Allan might, in
the course of their travels, find them
selves In conference with Secretary
Hughes and Secretary Mellon, or even
President Coolidge. Visitors of their
tssaIfding would have entree at the
White House If they desired an audi
ence and would be listened to with
great attention if they came on a
mission for the government at Lon
don.
Omcials Define status.
The farthest American officials
would go, therefore, was to say that
IT the two bank officers had come to
the United States to talk about inter-
national debts or on any other official
mission, no knowledge of it had pre-
ceded them. At the British embassy.
likewise, 1t was declared that If the
British government had sent the two
on an errand of an official character,
the foreign Office had neglected to so
inform its representatives here.
There are number of interesting
questions to which Mr.. Norman and
Sir Allan might address themselves
If they really held a commission from
etiC boiuoh ioi ciSh 'OHlCe IN regard TO
the debt question, as indicated in re-
ports circulated in financial circles
after their arrival in New York. The
British government has taken a deep
interest In the discussions for fund
ing the French debt to the United
States. The two capitals are in cor
respondence also on the question of,
payments of American claims against
Germany under the Dawes plan, and
beyond all of these problems is the
ever-present subject of a general in
terallied debt arrangement in which
all efforts to interest the United States
hitherto have failed
Discussion of Debts.
The suggestion that interallied
debts may be discussed at the forth
coming Paris conference had made
that question, for the moment, one of
immense Importance to Great Britain.
but the Coolidge administration had
indicated that it still is loath to be
drawn into such a debate.
The mystery surrounding the ar
rival of the two British visitors
reaches even to their present where
abouts. After their arrival in New
York they apparently disappeared
with the same success that attended
their secret departure from Great
Britain. The British embassy ap-
peared to incline to the belief TODAY
that they still were somewhere in
New York City and every one else
professed to be entirely without in
formation about them.