DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 124, 16 August 1927, Page 14

DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

ENGLAND AND AMERICA . (Copyright, 1927 ; JjWERY once in a while some prophet or the son of a prophet steps to the centre of the stage and announces that the British Empire is done for It is on its last legs and in a few years it will disappear Mayor Thompson recently elected in Chicago and his war cry was that he was determined to keep the King of England out of Chicago. He might have added that he wanted no interference from the planet Mars. Yet it shows that raising the bugaboo of English dominance is one of the most popular things you can do in America. Ever since the Revolutionary War some Americans have identified patriotism with hatred of the British Empire. Just now Russia conceives England to be her arch enemy, and there are many inhabitants of India and Egypt who are ready to damn the British Government at the slightest notice. Mrs Pankhurst four or five years ago said: “By all human calculation the sun has set for the white races.” There seems to be a common idea that the proposition of the British Government to enfranchise women of 21 years of age is a blow to British supremacy. Yet somehow the British Empire keeps lumbering along. It does everything wrong, of course, but it seems to get away with it Almost every country that Great Britain has “oppressed” seems to prosper The Egyptian bonds that were worth nothing when Great Britain took over Egypt are now worth par. What chaos would ensud in India If the little handful of Britons were " anc * t * le Ilians were left to the tender mercies of the Hindus ana Mohammedan princes no one can say. •.^ Y^ U not l lke the E n Slish and you may have a private bone to pick with Englishmen, but you have to admit that they are the best governors in the world. After all, America is the offshoot of England and despite all the quarrels we have had with our mother and the ignorant prejudices against her among “*• t h ? u^htful People are anxious that relations between mother and child shall become closer and closer. Of course England makes mistakes. From carefully reading high-brow literature I conclude there is only one country in the world that makes more mistakes and that is the United States. We seem to be the two champior mistake makers of time, but somehow we get there.