TREND IN MODERN AMERICA

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 19 June 1933, Page 2

TREND IN MODERN AMERICA

GROWING SYMPATHY WITH BRITAIN. NEW ZEALANDER’S IMPRESSIONS. Two important factors that were bringing the United States of America more into sympathy with present-day problems of the British Empire and Europe were outlined in an address given on Thursday by Mr 11. Miller, librarian at Victoria University College, Wellington. The address was delivered at an afternoon-tea gathering of the Wellington, branch of the League of Nations Union, at which Mf Miller had been invited to speak on his recent tour of the United States (states the “ Dominion”). ‘The tour had been made on an invitation by the Carnegie Foundation.

“I and my wife commenced the tour with some apprehension because of the reputed unsympathetic feeling of some Americans toward the British peoples.” said Mr Miller, “but we were soon astonished at the hospitality shown us. Among the educated sections we found evidence of a very real and deep feeling for England. The unsympathetic side of Americans’ ideas about England, not all without historical foundation, is becoming less noticeable.”

To understand the problems of the United 'States properly one should know that there were really two different countries, continued Mr Miller. The great cities in the east, from Boston to Philadelphia, had been in the past enormous dumping -grounds for foreigners, who had. not yet become true Americans, while in the Middle West the population was mainly of English and Germanic origin. The great numbers of Latins and Slavs in the east were not so easily assimilated into the life of the nation, and it was feared by many that the English and Germanic peoples -would be swamped. This feeling was the reason for the growing leaning in America toward other English nations. Another factor that tended to bring the United States nearer to England and also to Europe was the economic position, Mr Miller continued. The depression in the States was very real and severe, partly because the great stream of immigrants from Europe had stopped. This had coincided with the world slump. For this reason the United States was now facing the same problems as England and Europe, and thus was drawn.' more strongly to those countries than ever before. Mr Miller concluded with the remark that he considered that these factors would allow the United States to make a great contribution to world xoeace in the near future.