The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 1915. AMERICA AND THE WAR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 6, 8 January 1915, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 1915. AMERICA AND THE WAR.

Mr A. E. W. Mason, the famous novelist, returned to England after a visit to America early in November and he endeavours to show, in the English press, what the great majority of the people of the United States think of Germany and the war. He affirms that, unofficially ninety per cent, of Americans hope and pray for the success of the Allies and says that America has no doubt that the reasons for this war are to he found in Gteivnat) greed for other" people's e»lonie,B, in German economic difficulties at home, in German hist of domination and va.'Mty of race. Mr Ma*on goes on to say that America, like Great Britain, stands for so much of what the rulers of Germany despise. She believes in liberty; therefore she cannot sympathise with the Prussian theory that (Bernhardi, p. 43): "No people is so little qualified a* the German to direct its own destinies, whether in a Parliamentarian or Republican Constitution." She has been from the first one of the apostles of Arbitration. Therefore she cannot agree that Courts and Arbitration "giving the weak nation the same right to live as the powerful and vigorous nation represent a presumptuous encroachment on the natural laws of development" (Bernhardi, p. 34). With America as with Great Britain, the great recruiting sergeant is the casualty list. The very mistakes whioli Ger- • many has made about British power show the utter incompatibility of German and American ideals. To the Germans the British Empire was decadent and nerveless because they could not understand the idea of a willing brotherhood of free peoples. But to America no conception could be more natural. The German has not learnt the difference between Drill and Discipline ; and until he does there can be no approximation between his ideals and those of America or Great Britain.. After dealing with otjier aspects of the situation, Mr Mason concludes:— "A word may be written as to the future. America, of course, wants the restoration of peace. It has been badly hit, as every country with a great trade must be by so far-flung a war. It has, too, a record cotton crop, and cannot easily dispose of it. But it does not want a patebed-up truce, which will mean more armaments than ever, a still heavier burden of taxation upon all the world, and a more murderous outburst even than this in twenty years time. I do not believe for a moment that if it were necessary to close the North Sea, that .procedure would arouse any r&a l resentment in the American nation. The American Government would enter its protest, of course, as it must do. But the American people, wanting the final settlement to be such that no recur-

rence of the war can be possible, would look upon us with a bitter disappointment if we waged it with half a heart." Let lis hope .Mr Mason is right: we prefer to believe he is, but certainly' as Mr Roosevelt points out. there are! strong indications that the official 1 "cult of cowardice" exists, and British regard for President Wilson has cooled off quite a lot of late. j