AUSTRALIA & AMERICA

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 75, 22 December 1920, Page 10

AUSTRALIA & AMERICA

THEIR MUTUAL IGNORANCE

(By W. A. Brcnnan, in the Melbourne "•'Argus.") Mr. Lowell Thomas thinks that America knows as much of Australia ns Australia does of America—which is nothing. That is merely one of those rhetorical exaggerations into which all accurate* war correspondent falls when he becomes an after-dinner speaker. X had written something ,011 the subject before Mr. Thomas spoke; but as an article (however good in itself) is always improved by a text, Mr, Thomas's rimnrks may be tnken as a text to adin - my own remarks, which are:—

A number of people in Amcrica have heard of Australia, These well-informed people say kindly that it is a fine country "from all I have heard," that "it has a future," or that, like Micawber, that "It has l*en the dream of my life to go there." Few of them spoil the dream by realisation. The tactful Australian,. after 11 few' days' experience, is always helpful to his generous host. No visitor should bluntly stale that he conies from Melbourne without adding that Melbourne .is "down south," woll within tho temperate zone, and that it is (for the. present at least) the seat of Government, 'llieso particulars form a foundation for conversation, and they may be added lo as tho stock of knowledge shows signs of "petering out." There is a lcnack in keeping just ahead with information. Only an inexperienced blunderer would permit a new friend to assume that Melbourne, being in the south, is in South Australia, and therefore, by a rapid train of reasoning, not in tho Northern Territory. Alertness is necessary if the dangers arising from i tho "littlo learning", are to be guarded against. It ia wronn of the Americans, not tn know more about Australia. We are 11 very important people, with seven Parliaments. The mere business of electing these Parliaments is so important, and occasions so much noise, that no one should fail to notice us. America has forty-eight States oaf* with its legislature* and if Australians W-'re not so busy tiifiy would certainly know something about these States. The want of knowledge does not arise from lack of interest in America. Everyone in Aus-trali-i, for instance, has heard of Governor Cox. They beard first of him about five months ago, and if thev do not bear about him again the fault is with Governor Cox, who has not made his way to the Whitt House. Few pwple in Australia mav know what it is that Governor Cox governs. Thev could not lav their finger 011 the State from which Senator Harding comes, not to mention the town which lias the house the porch from which Senator Haulm.. delivered that famous series of speeches, each one of which so adequately and so perspicuously explained its Enough of this. We must abandon tho painful subject of the deficiency 111 knowledge the Australians have of Alliel ' Lot us revort to the more urgent duty of bemoaning America's fearful ignorance ° f Sonie Americans know us well. It was not mv privilege to meet the eimiunt financier in New York' whose representative abroad had sent him cuttings from newspapers. Every, joke against America, every unfavourable comment 011 the country—its deep-thinking before entering the war, its opulent language when the war had been won—was carefully pasted in a scrap-book. I mot the Australian who mot the financier, aml ( even the ricochet of the indignation staggered me. .Ine financier stormed around the room m a perfect Wall Street calm. He cursed Australia with a fiery curse and hoped that flic whole of its inhabitants would be lost b.v the foundering of the ferry boat which ran from the larger islands to the suburban residences 111 New /.calami. We were a degenerate people, and for his part he declined to facilitate the cashing of a draft at 3-35 or at any price. He had an accumulation of onesided knowledge that made him altogether different from the average American, who is disposed to learn the first thing about us dispassionately, and even sympathetically. Tho incident shows how very care fill people should bo before cracking a joke about America. No one may see it except an eminent financier, who cannot seo

How different this unfortunate incident in tho blare and hustle "down town" to my own pleasant cxpcrienci) in a sylvan scene in the heart of Canada. There were two American women there in a. camp set upon a beautiful lake. Two years licnce it will be a resort with a fine hotel. Automobiles will dash under fue portico, and expectant porters will take charge of the "grip' and suit-case. To-day—or at any rate two Snaths ag<Hthe mountain goaf, looked down from ln's giddy eminence, the beaver came, out in the evening and swam ncrow the liilte to his house at the point where the limpid stream entered the. lake, the white, bear descended from his fastnesses at night, grateful fpr the scraps from the camp and' rampageously indig'nnnt if none wore about. Into this quiet retreat came an Australian in whom the American women displayed on interest very flattering. It. was not till the intimacy ripened, that they confessed to not .having seen nil Australian before. Gradually a perception dawned upon the Australian that he was an interesting addition to tho white bear, the beaver, and the mountain goat, to he talked of when the party returned to Chicago. Let this kindly interest be set against tho sopliislieatod indignation of the Wall Street financier.

Around the historic seals of learning in Boston thcr* is a thirst for knowledge truly admirable-. Americans always become "acquainted with" the. passenger flitting near them'on a rubberneck. If his speech betrays him ho has to explain himself. I was complimented on my knowledgo of li'nglisli by a young, mnn who came from the capital of Pennsylvania. The name of tho town hno slipped my memory for the moment, hut most Australians will recall it. "I know you wore not an American," remarked a woman with nasal distinctness, "bocause you spoke with an English accent." Tinder flatt.iry even the most watchful person may forget to helpful'. A vory bright woman on llirt front seat inquired if Buenos Ayres wnß in Australia. The necessary correction was made, but it is to be feared that it did not Teach the bright young' woman. Just at that moment the guido yelled through his megaphonP:' "On our right is tho University of Ha-vnrrd, which hns fivo thousand students ,one hundred profe-ss-iors, two hundred and fifty lecturers, which it takes eight hundred thousand dawlers every year to pay." (The statistics are approximate.) The normal New Yorker does not cars in tho least whero tli« visitor cornea from. On any given day thero nro ih» hundred thousand migrants in New York. The resident Is Impartially ignorant of the history of them nil. .The Wall Street finano-;ir who mndo a hobby of newspaper cuttings is an abnormni individual. A head waiter from Southern Europe was an intelligent exception to the general indiifcrence. "You como from a free country," 1i« how lmprehsively, "where a man can have a drink." I 110 politely handed a bill of fare upon I which nothing was free. I

Information about; Australia is eagerly sought in America, but a man had better not liavo been born if )t« gives it in the wrong way. There was a Sydney man who had a cnr (which is nn automobile), and he was abnul; to depart from an important town in the States. "What Kind of'» town is Sydney?" asked a resident. "Pretty fair," replied the 'arbour denizen; "about twice'as 'big as this place." He hnd his hand oil the lever when ho spoke and could afford to bo frank, but 110 person who Imd not concluded liis visit could say a tiling like that. There was an unpleasant pause in the conversation when somo Australian with a brain for square miles toid an audienco of Amoric-ans that Australia without its adjacont islands was a little larger than the United States. The impression was so painful that h,e liad to add that there was somo of it which was not ico' fertile.