End of Empire
Sir: May I comment on Sir Denis Brogan's remark that 'Canada and Australia and India are no busi- ness of ours ...' (5 December). As Australia is constitutionally tied to the British monarchy, and no less tied, by a whole welter of social, educational and cultural traditions, to Britain, or rather, an idealised stereotype of Britain. this shrug- ging off of responsibility isn't enough.
In his recent memoir, the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports glor- ies in his anglophilia and expresses the wish that these ties should not only remain, but be further streng- thened. Many of his fellow country men and women do not share these views—some, like myself, openly cringe whenever the secondhand emblems of our nation are dis- played and the second-rate atti- tudes which so frequently accom- pany them are voiced.
It needs to be brought home to Australians just how little most Britishers know or cart about their country (witness the lack of in- terest shown by your news media in anything Australian excepting Test cricket matches) so that we may begin a long-overdue reap- praisal of our relationship with the 'mother country'.
Gillian Harrison 36 Thurloe Square, London sw7
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