• ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS -
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
,Sia,-7Perhaps you will Permit ime to supplement the record of personal experiences which you were good enough to print in your issue of December 31-it. My letter itself was written in support of the ciahn that universal disarmament is the only
sure way_ to universal peace. _ • . In one of two visits I made to America during our South African War,! found myself one evening in the West Hotel, Minneapolik. . I had just arrived from St. Louis, a city where the German influence was Strong. I had been hearing enough there and elsewhere in the Middle West of fierce criticism of our doings in South Africa. While sitting in the lounge in the hotel, a gentleman spoke to me. He said : You are an Englishman." I said : "Oh, no,'! am only a Scotsman from Glasgow." "Well," he said, "you are from the other side of the Atlantic, anyway. i am the Mayor of Minneapolis, and I would like to talk to you about your war." I felt was in for it, and resignedly waited for what I expected would follow, and it did. Naturally, I did my best to hold up the British side, and he, probably seeing I was rather distressed, suddenly said : "Well, I hope you will win anyway," I replied : "I have been in this country for a good many weeks, and that is the first word of encouragement
I have had from anybody. But -why do you say so ? "Well," he said, "wherever the English flag flies the door is open to freedom of trade. You will keep the door open in South Africa, and we will get in and do our share of the business."
It is always good in international questions to look at them from the other man's point of view. This story is told for the benefit of those visionaries who dream of a British Inter-Imperial Customs Union, with tariffs againit the rest of the world. That is their own ominous phrase. If it were possible for us to create a system of British Inter-Imperial Tariffs against the rest of the world, the rest of the world would promptly array themselves against us. Undoubtedly, the 'toleration the rest of the world has hitherto manifested towards the British Empire is- largely based upon the opinion held, not only by the Mayor of Minneapolis of twenty-seven years ago, but by the rest of the WOrld to-day.
Those who are interested in Anglo-American relations, as we all ought to be, can pursue the argument further for
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