ENGLAND AND AMERICA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2237, 10 February 1921, Page 2

ENGLAND AND AMERICA.

IN an address before the members of the Overseas Club in London Major lan Hay Beith (“lan Hav”) said that, rightly or wrongly, the English were looked upon by other nations as the strangest, queerest, and most incomprehensible people mi the face of the earth. The languid interest which we as a nation took in our neighbours was negligible compared with the speechless amusement with which they sometimes regarded us. How did the French regard the British'? During the war wc struck the French pretty favourably, hut just now the French ivere not quite pleased with us. It was not altogether surprising. It was the easiest thing in the world to shake hands with an opponent, but l-o remain persistent friends with an ally for an indefinite period was a feat as yet unrecorded. America, was Iradilionally antiBritish, hut conscientiously proBritish. There were three barriers to understanding: Garbled history, the Atlantic Ocean, and the possession of a, common language; for it was easier to start trouble with somebody whose language you know than with somebody whose language you did not know. The two great sections of the English-speaking world were a complete mystery to (.lie another. An Englishman's real ambition in life was to get a railway compartment to himself, while Americans were gregarious, and liked to meet together freely. The American found the Englishman always indulging in an atmosphere of mild depreciation of himself, his affairs, and his relatives. But with fundamental things America and Britain were one and indivisible.