The allegation that Henry Ford is financing the trip of Queen Marie in the United States gained ground when a reported representative of the Henry Ford Motor Company was expelled from the Queen’s special train.
The Associated Press reports that the alleged Ford representative who was expelled from the train on order of Col. John H. Carroll, official host to Her Majesty, is J. A. Ayres of New York. The colonel’s action followed published stories quoting Ayres as saying that Ford was spending nearly $500,000 to provide transportation for the royal party, and that Ayres himself was loaning money to members of the entourage with which to pay incidental expenses.
In a statement Col. Carroll said Ayres had presented himself in New York before the tour started, asking for permission to ride on the train on the basis of an agreement which he said he had with the Roumanian Legation in Washington, by which he was to have automobiles made by the Ford Company ready for the Queen at every city she visited.
Ayres was denied a seat on the train until Ottawa was reached several days ago, having followed the train by automobile. At Ottawa Col. Carroll said he tooks Ayres aboard out of sympathy because of the long jump from that city to Winnipeg and Ayre’s inability to hire an airplane with which to make the trip.
Officials of the Ford Company in Detroit denied knowledge of Ayres or arrangements for paying the Queen’s expenses, according to reports from there. Ford representatives said, however, that they had extended the courtesy of the use of their cars to her.
An Associated Press despatch from Detroit states:
J. B. Ayres, claiming to be a personal representative of Henry Ford with Queen Marie’s party during the American tour and who said Ford had been paying incidental expenses of the party on its tour, is unknown here, E. G. Leibold, private secretary to Mr. Ford, declared.
Leibold stated there was nothing usual in the fact that Ford should proffer the use of automobiles from his agencies. It is a courtesy extended thousands of important personages visiting American shores by the Detroit manufacturers, he said.
Leibold said the Ford organization had tendered the party use of Lincoln cars at cities where the Ford Company has agencies.
When friends of Mr. Ford tour Europe they are also given use of cars and drivers, supplied by his European agencies, and the costs are forwarded to the main office here.
There is no significance whatever to be attached to such action, he said.
Mr. Leibold said he could not account for the statement by Ayres that Ford had cared for “incidental” expense of the party. In the absence of Mr. Ford, he said he did not feel qualified to make such a statement for the manufacturer. He indicated, however, that he thought Ayres’ statement without foundation.
The “Jewish Daily Bulletin” learns from reliable sources in Roumania, that Queen Marie brought into Roumania the first fifty copies of the infamous anti-Semitic falsification, the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” on which Henry Ford based his anti-Semitic propaganda in the United States.
Persons following closely the events in Roumania know that she is behind every intrigue in Roumania and the Balkans, especially those of an anti-Semitic character.
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