Hokitika Guardian Evening Star TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5th, 1920.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 October 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian Evening Star TUESDAY, OCTOBER sth, 1920.

THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING RACE. There should, by reason of language, be a. great affinity between Britain and America, yet as a matter of fact there are those who would foster a spirit of antagonism, and seek to drive in a wedge which would separate the two peoples from the mission in life which should be their chief portion — the fair and reasonable «ontrol of the worlds’ best interests. Combined as brothers in arms in such a noble cause they are capable of achieving great results for humanity. Between the two peoples themselves there were feuds in the past, born of misunderstandings and ili-advised actions, but in the high places on both sides of the Atlantic a clearer vision is now possible, and a , better understanding and a more reasonable spirit prevails. In a recent issue of the “New York Times” literary supplement, Mr Brander Matthews, reviewing a hook by the well-known writer, Mr Owen Wistrtr, which deals with the former antagonism between England and the United States says of Mr Wister: “Plainly he thinks as most of us do, that order and safety and freedom will be most likely to endure in the world if the United States and the British Commonwealth shall hereafter cultivate more cordial relations, and become more clearly conscious of their possession of the same language, the same literature, the same law and the same ideals, political, and personal. The man who lives in Portland, England, is more likely to have fundamental convictions akin to those of the men who live in Portland, Maine, and in Portland, Oregon, than he is to , look at life from the angle of the man who lives in Oporto, Spain, or in T.e Havre, France.” This essential Kinship, Mr Matthews continues, is sometimes forgotten and sometimes denied but none the less it is a vital fact which t is advantageous for both nations to remember. “There are,” lie says, “foes of comity between the two great people who speak the same language and who cherishes the same ideals. They are open foes, so to speak, for the Sinn Fein agitators do not hide their fire under a bushel; and the German-Ameri- j can alliance is ever vocal, even if its

voice is now sunk to be only a whis- J per.’ But there are two other obstacles j to the establishment of perfect good j will; one is the nntiJEhglish complex ! bred in most Americans by their school j histories the other is simply that | the “folkways” of the people of the United States difFer from those of the English, and that each is irritated and puzzled by the manners and customs of the other, and that these little things bias both so unreasonably that f hev fail to take into account thp big things they possess in common. He quotes a shrewd remark from the book under j review, which says: For most of the , English the world is divided into three > peoples —En gl i sh, foreigners, and Americans; and for most of us, likewise, it is divided into Americans, foreigners and English.” Here is the danger. We care only a little | what foreigners may say about us, for ! we are well aware that they do not I know us; but we care acutely what our lcin may say about us, for we feel that they ought to know us. 'Hie remedy suggested is for the two peoples to endeavour to get to know each other better, and to practise mutual forbearance, towards each other’s foibles and national, peculiarities, and for the eo-

ple of the United States to realise that if the Americans “were so farseeing as she (England) is, we also should know that her goodwill is equally important to us, not alone for material reasons or for the same of safety, hut also for those- few deep, ultimate ideals of law, liberty, life, manhood and womanhood which we. share with her, which we got from her, because she is our nearest relation in this many-peopl-ed world.”