Sut,—It is understandable that Mr. David Mitchell's national pride should
be hurt by Mr. Henn's article (May 22nd), but since he admits the accuracy of what is there said he would have been wiser to keep silent. He urges that " it is high time the English started to look to their Dominion of the North." Surely Mr. Henn's articles on Canada are intended to encourage just that. They may be too plain-spoken for some tastes, but we shall never understand our friends' points of view if we do not know their weaknesses as well as their strength. If Mr. Mitchell thinks there is another side to the picture by all means let him give it, but he will not improve matters by mere abuse. Accusing us of being unfriendly, he implies that Canadians are the reverse. So they are, of course, but one would never think it from his own remarks. Mr. Henn may be " an English flower which has wilted on the Canadian plain.,9 but it does not seem that even prairie 4°WerS flourish in every soil—not at any rate on the Oxford clay. I challenge Mr. Mitchell's assertion that the majority of Canadians In this country feel little affection for its people. The large number °,1, his fellow-countrymen who come over here of their own free will s in itself • sufficient proof of the contrary. It is a pity Mr. Mitchell is not " robust " enough to put up with criticisms no worse than those he himself makes of a " quaint and unfriendly land " where he is, after all, under no obligation to remain.—Yours faithfully, 2 Fellows Road, Hampstead, N.W.3. ARTHUR E. B. OWEN.
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