12 OCTOBER 1929, Page 2

* * * * It described a scheme for the

" Reconquest of America," and it was appropriate to the form of the burlesque that it should be addressed to the British Prime Minister by Sir William Wiseman—who at the time, by the way, was not in America but at the Paris Peace Conference. The Irish author brought into his squib as many names of Englishmen connected with British organiza- tions as he could think of, as well as many American public men. Ex-President Taft, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Pierpont Morgan, Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, the Archbishop of York (Dr. Cosmo Gordon Lang), the Boy Scouts, English men of letters and politicians (who bad come to explain Great Britain to America) were all in it. It is quite incredible that the Navy Department should have taken this joke seriously. Yet it was seriously used by a Gaelic-American group during the Black-and-Tan campaign. Can such credulity and folly be paralleled ? We are grateful to the special correspon- dent of the Observer for his very entertaining account of the document. No doubt the truth will come out when the Senate Committee resumes its inquiry next week. * * * *