A PLEA FOR ENGLAND.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2129, 18 May 1920, Page 1

A PLEA FOR ENGLAND.

Let us forgot our ancient prejudices and support her strongly. Has she not really been our ' best friend among the nations?

The following appeared in the New York Tribune of February Ist, 1917:

“Somewhat over ■ one hundred years have slid into the discard since our last war with England. It would be historically correct to say since our first war with England. School books now about to go into the discard have misled a great number of Americans into the belief that the hostilities immediately following the Declaration of Independence were between the United States and England. Clearer perception of the truth leads to the discovery that wliat then occurred was a revolution on the part of certain subjects of the King of England against his usurpation and oppressive measures. It was a fight between Englishmen domiciled in America and the dominant faction of Englishmen domiciled in England, resulting in the upholding of the fundamental principles of English liberty and followed by the establishment of an independent government animated chiefly by the love- of liberty, which was the essence, of English civilisation. “The theories of the French Revolution undobuledly played a part in the formation of the new republic, but its laws, its language, its literature, its bone and sinew, its personnel were, and to this day, generally .speaking, remain English. As to the England of centuries ago, so there have Hocked people of every race, every clime, every language, to this new country; but not any ot them singly nor all of them combined have lie'en able, even if they desired, to change the essential racial characteristics of the good old stock or to make us really foreign to the land that gave us our start in life. Our hair may not lie as light, or our eyes as blue, nor our pronunciation or spelling as English as they once were, we may have a bit more vivacity, we may be less averse to change, we may not have the same reverence for the established order of things; but the American who visits in England or the Englishman who iconics here and really enters into the life of either for a reasonable time—say, for as long as it lakes a New Yorker lo become fairly used to the ways and atmosphere of San Francisco —finds himself, at home. The differences either finds are no greater than those which the Philadelphian finds in Boston are less marked than the Louisianian finds in Maine. Ask any Rhodes scholar whether he found his fel-iow-undergraduales at Oxford materially different in ideas, aims, manner of thought, making due allowance differing antecedents and surroundings, from the fellows he associated with at his American university. One must make some allowance for different surroundings j one would not expend to find precisely the same mental altitude in a notice resident of Tucson, Ariz., as one would expend to find in a native resident'of Brookline, Mass. “But let an American go to Berlin, or to Baris, to Vienna or to Rome, to Betrograd or to Madrid, he will 'surely feel like a stranger in a strange land for an infinitely longer time and to an infinitely greater degree than if he goes to London, to Manchester,- do Edinburgh, to Dublin, or to any small (own in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. By ‘an American’ I mean ime who has been horn and brought up here as an American, and not as an English-Ameriean, Irish-Ameri-ean, German-Anieriean, Italian-Am-eriean, or any other hyphenated variety. I do not care whence his parents or grandparents came provided only he has lived in an American atmosphere, and not in Little Italy, or German rathskellers, or St. George’s, or St. Patrick’s, or St. Anyone Else’s peculiar neighbourhood.

“If, then, I am right in asserting that in spite -of early mistaken prejudices or animosities, such as usually' follow family quarrels, and in spite of modifications due to differences of climate and entourage and age, we are essentially part of the English race in language, customs, laws, literature and general ways of looking at things, .why should we hesitate to give to England in her present struggle the fullest sympathy and support ? Is she not fighting to maintain the principles of individual liberty and government in which we also believe ? Are we any more a democracy than she is ? She calls her head King, and we call •curs*President; he is born to the title, ours is elected; but ours, in fact, has more monarchical power than hers. Our commerce is principally with her or her colonies. Her navy is our great protection, as has been demonstrated many times. Barring a little misunderstanding on the part of a few Englishmen of

mistaken sympathies (hiving our Civil War, has nor England been onr best friend among the nations of the earth? Ido not forget the Eranee that helped ns in onr struggle for independence just as she is now helping England —or they are helping each other —in this titanic si niggle for freedom from military barbarism. But Samoa, Manila Bay,' and many other incidents rise to prove tier steadfast friendship. The Venezuela incident was certainly no more irritating or offensive to the Monroe - Doctrine than was the French effort to set Maximilian upon the throne of Mexico, yet one seldom hears of France accused of being unfriendly to us. “It is to England that the Entente Allies look to secure the victory that is to bring relief from German arrogance and brutality. It is England that Germany looks upon as her chief enemy. The English navy up to now, the English army from now on, and England’s wealth all the time, are the mainstays of the Entente’s defence. Magnificent as the French have been and are, bravo as are the Italians, .effective as have been —even more effective as will be —the Russians, without the power of England’s navy, and storehouses at their backs, they could not have held out as they have done. Whether, then, we believe that blood is thicker than water, or we love France, admire Italy, wish to encourage progress in Russia, pity Belgium and Se'rvia, or merely desire the defeat of the Central Pow'ers lest their triumph should mean trouble hereafter for us, is it not time that we should come out strong and clear for England, cease carping at her,, cease ignorantly asking what she has done, and save our own influence by supporting her and her allies'? “England and our well-loved France—perhaps Russia and Italy, too — are firm friends, their friendship being based oh correct understanding of each others aims and desires. Shall we not join them, forgetting our ancient prejudices, as they, too, have done?”