ENGLAND AND HER CRITICS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18899, 14 January 1927, Page 11

ENGLAND AND HER CRITICS.

TO TIIZ EDITOR OP THE FF.E3S. j •Sir.-In a recent edition of The ■> Pfkss an extract appeared in your [ pnper from a northern paper quoting \ a man who described England as a ' ".Nation of beggars." As an English- j man I most strongly resent the scandalous and false statement which the author of it would have been called upon, in less decadent times, to humbly apologise for. The statement is so obviously false to those conversant with world matters, that it would not be worth noticing, but for the fact that American propaganda is far too much in evidence in the Dominions, and that statements appearing in newspapers arc assumed by the "masses" to be true. What should we say to an Englishman, who after a visit of a few weeks, or months, ventured to write to a paper in England asesrting that we were a "Nation of bankrupts," because we could not pay our annual interest out of the excess of our exports over our imports, and had to resort to the "Nation of beggars" for a push loan to meet our liabilities.' The critic's ignorance is nearly ou a par with liis audacity, for he docs not appear to know how England "wiped off" £ 2,000,000,000 owing to her by her Allies, has paid off hundreds of millions sinco the war, has scrapped over 2.000,000 tons of warships, and still has an up-to-date Navy. She brought over 2,000,000 Americans, mostly in her ships, in spite of submarines, and shortage, put 5,000,000 men iuto the field and Maintained. ..rmics on the Western, Eastern, and Italian fronts, supplied munitions to her Allies, and since the war has restored her factories to peace purposes, and is resuming her trade agaiust many who did little in the war but annex it—aud finally is paying America £IOO,OOO a day at par for 62 years, whilst none but her and the Dominions are paying anything'.— Yours, etc., EX-OL'MrICEK. i I !