BRITAIN AND AMERICA.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I have just read a letter from C. B. Wingate, of Durham, California, which I am sure is an exaggeration of conditions on the Pacific Coast, for it happens that in the spring of 1923 I made a lecture trip to the West, and on several occasions gave one of my lectures which has to do with bringing about a better understanding between the English-speaking peoples. In every case—if I may judge from the applause—more than sixty per cent. of my hearers were favourable to my plea. In some cases it was nearer ninety per cent.
My audiences were picked audiences I will admit, but in some cases they were City Clubs, or University Clubs, and could not therefore be " selected " except in the sense that they were the more intelligent business men of the locality. They were also neither German nor Sclavic. In some cases it was evident that those who were too opposed to cheer were Irish of a certain unchanging type.
It is absurd to say that the people of the United States— any part of the States—do not know of Westminster Abbey. Mr. Wingate is either a prejudiced witness or unfortunately circumstanced. Every school-boy and school-girl reads of Westminster Abbey in our text-books on English History and English Literature ; even the students of European tradition share in this knowledge. To say they are indifferent to propaganda for the English Speaking Union is probably true, but after all, this nation is of the English, and not of the German or Sclavic or Italian tradition.
In the course of my tour I spoke on this English-American informal alliance, in Oklahoma, Texas, 'Wyoming, and Minne- sota, as well as in California, and to various Women's Clubs here in the East, and in every case more than sixty per cent. of my audience applauded my statement of the justice and the need of a better understanding of English men and English laws. It is true that in the power of our wealth and numbers it is less vital to know what the Old World thinks of America, but along with this " coming of age " it is time to put away adolescent prejudices. hitherto excessively sensitive, America is likely to swing too far the other way. I rejoice in every agency which tends to remove existing barriers to a full and frank understanding ani friendship between England and
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