FUTURE WORLD

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 12, 5 October 1943, Page 6

FUTURE WORLD

AN ENGLISHMAN WRITES TO AMERICA This is :m oxtmet from a letter by George (bustle, of Sc.A'onoaks, Kent, to liis .sister in Toronto. Mr Castle .served through the last. Avar as-a .soldier and through the first three years, of this one as an air raid warden. He wont through the blitz of London, saw his own livelihood. destroyed there when all the customers of his sales agency were bombed and burned out. He docs not protend that his views represent all of England, but they may lie taken as an indication of how one "little man" -who knows the full horror of Avar feels towards his American Allies. Just lately Ave have had. for some peculiar reason, in most of our papers, lectures on how to behaAe to our A'isitors in the United States Forces,, who also appear to be having

similar lectures on how to treat the homo rustieana Anglici. Well, I don't know, but reading these one might, get the impression that the inhabitants of this country have, only to see a United States serviceman to run alongside chivvying him as though lie were a representative of some recently discovered race' from the wilds of darkest Africa Of course it's all tommyrot. No one. in their .senses or with any regard for the truth would deny that there arc and have been difference; in our several outlooks or international politics and on many othei things. But the Avay in which these articles, are framed would rathei give the impression that there haf been some sort of enmity betweei us in the past. Personally, 1 do not see Avlicre i comes in. l'f we. have faults to tine [ with the. Americans it. i.s becaus* they seem to go out of their waj to misunderstand us, or at least d( not go to any trouble to understam us (which is not the same manna ' of thing at all). If there is one thing that is: t.ru< of Anglo-American relations it. i this: The average Englishman doe what his. conscience tells him, and having done it, cares not a tinker' , curse what anyone else thinks, of i [ • —but with this proviso., although li would be. the last to admit the fac -—that he would rather have th good opinion of America on his ac tion than that of any other natioi under the sun. "Tainted and Unitrue Picture" It is this fact that is behind ou reluctance as a nation to propagan dise America in this Avar, with tin result that America knows very lit tie of what Ave have done and an doing (and Avith God's help Avill g< on doing) and has led to a host o completely incompetent self-style< lecturers, going from this country to America to giA r e a completely tainted and untrue picture of us I have just left a bus here anc the top Avas crammed Avith Unitec States troops and Canadians. Except for the. brogue (which I personal 1\ think is fascinating, especially tlu soft Southern drawl) there Avas no! a thing to indicate, Avere they in civilian clothes, that they Avere any different to us. And avlij should one expect them to be? Largely Ave spring from the same stock. The main trouble so far as avc are concerned is the smallness of this island and the greatness of its population. With the passing of the years, and the. increasing number of people it has only been possible to secure priA r aey in our personal lives by the artificial hedging around of minds and eA r erything (an unconscious example ol' this is the carefully fenced-oll' gardens, even in the country, Avhere the next neighbour is possibly a mile away). This feiic-i ing off of the mind is something that has grown with the jiassing of years until it has become second nature to us. it is only now Ave are. realising our own individual insul-

aritv in this respect since the air raids shook us out oi' it and we learned that Mrs, Brown up the stree) is a real ilesh and blood woman and not just, an animated fur coat with a shopping basket, and that Mr Jones across the way is real J y alive and not just as incentive to look at the clock to verify that it really is 7.55 and Mr Jonas will catch the 8.05 as he has done every day for twenty years or niore. Case for Forgiveness Tf we are just beginning io understand ourselves any thoughLesiiliconside; ation for our visitors iroir. abroad: inight be forgiven. The Tact' i; that having insulated ourselves- for so many years again.s' an imaginaiy inquisitiveness on the part of others we really need oui visitors to come to us and say, 'How-

do, folks/' and we Avill welcome them. I have myself wanted to talk to both Canadian and American troops, but feel 11 might be thought to be. intruding, and my fears got the, better of my good intentions, I fancy mosL of us arc this way through this same insulation with which we have surrounded every point of contact with the world outside our homes !md our immediate circle. But like all insulation it. is only on the. outside. The vital wire is still underneath carrying a strong currcnt of goodwill and warm-heart-edness if only someone will start to .strip it off.

If Lhc.rc is one point of real difference between the. Americans and English it is. the fear (and the fear supposes no blame) that when the war is over and wc start to fight the peace—and it will be a light—■ America may walk out on us as she did last time. Plea to America 1 don't want' that misunderstood. Few really blamed America. All those of us who had been right through it felt that anyone Avho was far enough Avay from the. Franco-' German enmity was lucky and should get out and keep out until sanity and. decent neighbourliness had come to stay for good. But 11 do knoAV the shock most of the troops had when America stayed out of the League of Nations and left, it as an instrument of French revanche and German scheming and the duplicity and self-seeking of big-time industrial crooks.

Thus I say that if there is a fear it is that America will allow history to repeat itself and once again, in the words of an American "statesman" let Europe stew in its own juice. It cannot and "will not stew in its own juice. The juice it stews in will be the blood of Canadians, Americans, Australians and Britons,, just the same as last time, and the only difference will be that the juice will be stewed not only in Europe, but in every decent country outside "it. And it will not only be the blood of men, but that of women and babies—if ever any avoid a n has t lie pluck to bring any more babies into a world, that will bring death by every horrible, means from the skies, that will be by then an inferno of which the present sample will be merely an echo, and the dying screams of children only the Avind that sighs.

Only when tlic. spirit of decency and right and honesty and brotherly kindness are the attributes of a world 0:1' sanity can we, can America, lie down and rest. For us. of the generation now living, is the duty of leaving a clean and sweet world where fear is exterminated, want is banished, and. the spectre of a "favourable trade balance'" at

the expense of .some poor benighted native Avho lives to exist on a handful of rice a day is a thing remembered with the same horror as the burning of Christians in the Middle Ages. That is the call. That is the honour. That is the acme of a life that we arc called, upon to live and J die. That, those who come alter us will bless us, but will nevq'r know of our suffering, because for them suffering has passed from their world and they 'know it not. This is the path, and ahead are the hMls. Would a virile nation like America turn aside, before the foothills and let us scalc the heights, alone? L am sure she will not.

I I don't think they need worry much as to whether Americans; and English will get on all right. Only a drowning man tries to strangle his rescuer, and we. are not drowning yet., although our boat certainly did ship a devil of a lot of. water lately.—Copyright, N.A.N.A. and "Star-Sun."