"THE AMERICAN HATE"

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4511, 5 January 1923, Page 1

"THE AMERICAN HATE"

ENGLISHMEN UNPOPULAR IN THE STATES. PERSISTENT ANTIPATHY. ‘lt is the. most extraordinary thing, but they still hate us in America,” said Mi’ Lawrence Grossmith, ths English actor, in the course of a chat with a Dominion reporter. Having served as a commissioned liaison officer in America before that country took up arms, and with an acquaintance with American people extending over twenty ye.ars, the actor ‘was encouraged to enlarge on the topic owing .to the difficulty New Zealanders have in accounting for this marked antipathy towards Englishmen. “Ever since the War of Independence,” he said, “we have been regarded as the natural enemy of the American. This intangible antipathy has been passed on from generation to geueiatioh, without any weakening. It is .no good telling them that the great bulk of the English people of the time agreed with the Americans —then English colonists —in resisting oppressive taxation, and that King George had to employ Hessian troops to fight them because of the feeling towards the active resisters by the tlie English troops. You tell them that, and they simply don’t or won'L believe you. And■ there you are! They actually believe that we in England loathe and despice all Americans—that is, the non-travelled .American believes it. I don’t know what the feeling is out here, but that is certainly not the case in England. “Early in the war it was found; that nearly .all the school books in use in the primary schools of the States were compiled by Germans, and through and through they engendered a hatred of the English. It was German propaganda of a deadly, insidious order. This was one of the matters which Lord Reading took up with President Wilson. That sort of thing impressed on the child mind for over a hundred years—generation after generation—is not easily eradicated. It has made the Americans bigoted in their views, and the bigot one cannot argue with. Hence the help given to the Irish cause. “I am inclined to believe that the war did some little good. Ijt certainly did with' the troops that were associated with us. But with those with the French, no ! With those who came in contact with the British Navy the change effected was splendid—they could not say enough in praise of our Navy.” Does the prejudice extend towards English plays and players ? he was asked. “When it. is an English play by an English company, yes. There is not the slightest doubt about it. Tn the cast of an individual Englishman in an American company it is not marked. Take myself, for instance. I’ve been over there for some seven years, and actually made my first appearance in America twenty years- .ago, but I have invariably played with. American companies. When a man has been before the American public for some years he becomes regarded as an American, as is the case withGeorge Arliss or William Faversham, who are both proud of being Englishmen. A typical case occurred only a few weeks ago. Marie Tempest went from here to New York and. opened in a play called ‘The Serpent’s Tooth.’ The notices! were amazingly good—the performance was splendid, and the play excellent—yet they lasted three weeks, when they gave it best and left for England. That is only one of many cases that could be quoted. The performances may be’fine and the critics absolutely fair, but the public don’t go—and there yon are !

“Some English plays succeed. Those of Mr A. A: Milne constitute a ease in point. ‘Mr Pirn Passes By’ was quite a succes's, but it featured an American star. Then came ‘The Dover Road,’ which featured Charles Cherry, who has been in America, for many years. Following that came ‘The Truth About Bloyds,’ by the same author, with 0. P. Heggie and Sybil Carlisle in the leads. I played in Somerset Maugham’s latest play, ‘Heme and Beauty,’ the title of which was changed to ‘Too Many Husbands’ in New York. The press notices were magnificent, but there was no money in it. The Stacpoole’s ‘Blue- Lagoon’ was tried, a good show, which ran just three nights. A capital farce called ‘Tons of Money,’ belonging to my brother George, And which has been a great success in London, was taken over, but on being tried out it was found to be so hopeless that it never reached New York at all. And this play o,f ours, ‘Captain Applejack,’ is an English play, and it got over simply because it was not played by an English company. The people did not get the English atmosphere of the first act for a moment! Yet they liked the play. I think it. is one of the cleverest of plays—so ingenious in construction and consistently amusing. With Charles- Hawtrey it rail two years in London. “The plays making money in New York when I left were ‘Liliom’ and ‘He Who Gets Slopped’ (both plays on a Hungarian theme), ‘The Hairy Ape,’ ‘The Bat,’ ‘The Bat and the Canary,’ and, of course, musical comedy anl melodrama.”