AMERICA AND THE WAR.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPEOTATOR.1 Snt,—On January 9th last you printed a letter of mine under the head of " America and the War." Since then tragedy has almost sounded the depths of life, and the world has been shaken by the abysmal orgy of Nietzsehe's " Superman " and Mr. H. S. Chamberlain's " Unmoral Christian." It is sublimely unimportant whether these things have altered an individual American's conception of neutrality or whether they have not. I do not think, however, that it is now fitting for any American citizen, living in this country and loyal to its Government, to discuss this neutrality in a newspaper—no matter how friendly it be—owned and published in a foreign country. I have no wish to criticize those of my countrymen who, as your columns show, must disagree with me except as to the principle involved.
Perhaps it is not for you in England to think of this, but of one thing am I sure. The individual influence of such letters writers in this country is not enhanced, nor is that of the foreign newspapers printing such letters added to. This latter point, of course, can have no force with you now ; it is not in human nature that it should. But how would it have suited British human nature if during the war of 1870 an Englishman, living in England, had, in the columns of a Paris weekly, aired even a noble discontent and contempt for his Government in remaining neutral ? Would his opinion of such a sordid and commercial course—as he considered it—have had much weight in Britain or in France either ? To ask such a question of an Englishman is—you may thank God—its own answer. This is not a matter of taste to be treated lightly ; it has to do with a patriotio dignity and a respect for one's father's house. Far happier than this was lir. Henry James's eolution. He frankly became
British citizen, and with dignity and loyalty to his best ideals gave full stop and period to his sentence.—I am, Sir, &c.,
CLEMENT NEWBOLD.
611 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, November 15th.
[Our correspondent ignores the fact that the Spectator never has treated, and never intends to treat, America as " a foreign country." We may be right or wrong in this matter, .but that this is our point of view is a fact, and a fact which for us, at any rate, vitiates his argument by analogy. We claim by the tie of blood a right to criticize America's action, and allow her a right to criticize ours which is wholly different from the right of criticism belonging to countries of alien race.—ED. Spectator.]
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