" FATHERLAND."
[To THE EDITOR Or TUN "SrECTATOR.1 Sin,—A propos of the message of King George to the French Army, to which you refer in last Saturday's number, might I enter a mild protest against the translation of patrie by Fatherland ? I am unable to consult Dr. Murray's Dictionary, but I question if the word Vaterland, in its English form, has been naturalized in this country. Try it in any combination you like—" Miss Cavell died for her Fatherland," " Your King and Fatherland call you," &c.—the result is something lrissarta and un-English. In these latter days especially "the Father- land" cannot be dissociated from German Knitter, and should be restricted to the one country where ruthless State-mastery and blood-and-iron methods have corrupted the soul of the people. It is to be hoped it will never be acclimatized here.— I am, Sir, &o., D. MUNRO FRASER. 40 Kelburn Avenue, Glasgow.
[We agree, and never employ the word "Fatherland." Cromwell used the word "Motherland," and that has always seemed to us of happy augury. Wordsworth told us to feel towards our country as does "a lover or a child," and a child looks instinctively to its mother. Is not the use of "Father- land " instead of " Motherland" one more example of the Hun's attitude towards women P—En. Spectator.]
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