Evening star., 1940-12-21
Hull Declares Report
OF Conflict on
Spanish Loan False
Column Reporting Row
With WeIIes Called
Deliberate Misstutement
Deliberate Misstutement

Secretary of State Hull toda.
branded as wholly inaccurate and a
having all the earmarks of deliberate
Misrepresentation published repor
concerning reported conflict between
Mr.. Hull and Undersecretary o.
State Welles over the question oI
relief to Spain.
The report in the Merry-Go-
Round. a daily column written by
Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen
said that 'croquet clique" inside
the State Department had sold Mr.
Hull on the idea of 500 900 00(
credit to Spain and that Mr.. Welles
had stepped in to get President
Roosevelt to overrule it.
Secretary Hull discussed the mat
ter at length in his press conference
today pointing out that in a press
conference on December he had
said that he never had heard a
sl00000,000 loan to Spain mentioned
and that such was not under consid-
Grafton.
Refers to Welles' Statement.
He also referred TO statement is
sued by Mr.. Welles yesterday in
which the Undersecretary said he
had never taken up the Spanish
question with Mr.. Roosevelt and that
his views on the subject were
identical with those of Mr.. Hull.
The Secretary then said that il
the statements of Mr.. Welles and
himself were to be believed there was
a clean-cut conflict with the story
and that it was wholly inaccurate
complete misrepresentation and
so far as all the earmarks would in
dicate, a deliberate misrepreSenta-
ton.
1t is very disagreeable, the Secre-
tary added, to have such matters out
of whole cloth thrown in the faces
of officials who are so overwhelmed
with emergency matters He re-
marked that he did not often stor
to make a record of the facts Wher
misstatements are published, but
that he felt that in justice to his
associates as we'll as to himself, q
sample of at least some of the mis-
statements that go out from time tC
time should be exposed.
Secretary Quotes Directly.
In his departure from custom to-
day, the Secretary quoted directly
from what he called the inaccurate
report this portion of the column:
The inside story of how the
career boys nearly put over the
S100000,000 credit to Fascist Spain
indicates the strength of the cro-
quet clique inside the State De-
partment. So Jimmy Dunn
political Advisor James Clement
Dunn sold the idea of the Spanish
credit to his croquet partner, and
for a time it looked as if Mr. Hull
would put it across. 1t was at this
point that Undersecretary of State
Sumner Welles stepped into the pic
ture. He communicated directly to
the President. who at that time was
away on his Caribbean cruise.
Roosevelt agreed with Welles that
to throw a hundred million dollars
into the lap of Fascist Spain would
be extremely unwise However. a
compromise finally worked out
largely for the purpose of saving
Mr.. Hull's feelings, since he had
already gone rather far out on
limb in favor of the Spanish credits" :"
Mr., Hull prefaced his statement
to his press conference today with
the explanation that he had not
had an opportunity to study the
article in question when he first
was asked about it yesterday. At
that time he reiterated that no
consideration was being given to a
loan to Spain. but that his Govern
ment was discussing with Spain and
other areas in distress the possi-
bility of supplying some sort of food
relief Presumably this would be
handled by the Red Cross and would
depend upon British permission for
the relief supplies to 60 through
the blockade.