MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON
y AM glad to hear that the Board of Education is encourag- ing ing Local Authorities and the Universities to teach the rising generation something more about American history and culture. Hitherto our ignorance of the United States has been shameful and unwise. Shameful, since it is a somewhat degrading symptom of national conceit. Unwise, since unless we under- stand the differences between ourselves and the Americans we shall never achieve that sound basis of co-operation which is the hope of all the world. Those of us who have lived and travelled in the United States have been distressed to discover, under the warm blanket of American kindliness, a layer of special sensitiveness in regard to the visiting Englishman. Other foreigners are taken more or less for granted. Frenchmen, Dutchmen, Australians, Scotsmen or Chinese can behave with tactlessness and their sins will be forgiven unto them. Yet the mildest comment of the visiting Englishman is apt to be interpreted as a criticism ; and even his praise, however spontaneous and sincere it may be, is assumed to be patronising. It may be true that many visiting Englishmen have shown bad manners toward their American hosts ; yet in the mass we are a kindly race, and if we are constantly wounding the suscepti- bilities of the Americans it must either be that their feelings are exceptionally tender (which is absurd) or that there exist special causes of friction which exasperate and inflame. I have often sought to analyse these causes.
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