The Guardian (And Evening star,with which is in-Corporate the west coast Times.) FRIDAY, AUGUST 10th. 1923

Hokitika Guardian, 10 August 1923, Page 2

The Guardian (And Evening star,with which is inCorporate the west coast Times.) FRIDAY, AUGUST 10th. 1923

E-N’l JANII AND’ AMERICA. It tends to promote the peace of tie world, remarks the Mercantile Gazette that a. good deal of suspicion and distrust of England which found expression in certain sections of the American people is disappearing. That it will entirely vanish need not lie expected as the United States is peopled not entirely by Americans, but partly by a hetorogeneous collection of men, women and children who have come from the slums and gutters of the European Continent. If those Americans citizens only were counted who have been bred and born there, and who come from ancestors whose lives have been passed upon American soil, the right hand of friendship would willingly be extended to England; but, unfortunately for us, the foreigners who live in tho United States, who are citizens of tho Republic in name only, do noi like us, because the English are law-abiding people nnd suppress with inexorable severity ally attempts to overturn law nnd order, and this is just what, many of those who live in tho States wish to do. Among these uro the Germans, from whom wo cannot expect any good wul. Britain foiled their Kaiser’s schemes for worlddomination and materially assisted to bring about the position which the great Teutonic Empire is in to-day. There is hatred bv some of our own km in America. The belief, also, that England was , eternally manoeuvring to obtain protection against her enemies by drawing upon the strength and virility of America has also gone. It is conceded that England has shown she is no senile power, but able to grasp and wield the sword just as strongly as she has been able to do in all of her long island story. The manner, also, in which her financial position has been handled has been re garde-' almost with awe, certainly with astonishment, by all financial experts in tho States. Nothing of the kind was expected. It was considered that she was so impoverished by the war thai ner currency would, against the dollar, be at a discount' of from 2-5 to 30 per cent, for years, whereas to-day the gap between parity has been reduced to 5 per cent-., and had it not been tor extensive purchases of American securities made by London, the English paper pound would have been exchangeable at 4 dollars 80 cents to-day. London has always favoured American investments for reasons based upon the certainty that no depreciation will ever take place in the dollar, as Amorica is too isolated to be affected by the possibilities of war, and very few of the bettor classes of stocks there fail to appreciate, Our people prior

to tho war held American investments to the value of one thousand millions sterling, and although the greater portion of those wore compulsorily taken from the owners by tho British Government- during the war, who received Imperial stock in substitution, a very great deal of that will again, when the markets and exchanges are favourable, find its way back to the States. American money is also corning over to England for Investment; one of tho greatest office buildings in London has lately been erected by an American corporation, and it is expected that many others will follow. There are many indications that American sentiinout in favour of England is changing, nnd now that esteem and respect are taking tho place of suspicion and distrust, Anglo-American questions are not likely to cause any troubles. The readiness w.ith which England accepted her legal responsibility for the American debt and the arrangements she has made for payment have all helped to bring about the better feeling, and a way is opening by which flic two great Englishspeaking nations may work in accord for the benefit and betterment of tiie human race.