HOW IT STRIKES A CONTEMPORARY."—SPANISH VERSION.
[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I hereby enclose the original and translation of an article which appeared in the A B C of the 3rd inst.; this paper is one of the most widely read in Spain. This article shows in what light Anglo-American relations are considered in this country.—
"POLITICS AND POLO.
Anglo-American hostility seems to have increased in the last few days. Two very significant facts point to this, namely, the extension of the Treaty which allies Great Britain with Japan, end the approval by the American Senate of peace with Ger- many, which will be followed by a commercial treaty. Wash- ington was awaiting the British decision before making up its mind.
We have already explained in these columns the dilemma in which Great Britain finds itself at the expiration of the period of its alliance with Japan. Will the Treaty be modified to exclude the case of an American-Japanese conflict? Will the agreement be renewed without such modification? Then Wash- ington would consider Great Britain to be on the side of an enemy whom sooner or later it will encounter in the Pacific. The British politicians, not daring to choose, have preferred a formula which they hoped would avoid both dangers—extension until October without modification.
Such cleverness apparently had not the desired effect. Hardly had the news reached Washington when the American Senate decided to follow the example of the House of Representatives, which some time ago voted in favour of declaring at an end the state of war with Germany. That is to say, the United States will wait no longer, and reckons Britain as the adversary of its policy in the Pacific.
But it is not only these two official acts that speak of the growing animosity between Americans and British. That hos- tility has passed from diplomatic circles to the man in the street. The British people has felt itself humiliated and con- quered by the Americans in the sporting world. Those who know how English people love these struggles will understand how the American triumphs have stung. The polo cup offered by the King was won by the American team, and the inter- national golf championship was carried off also by a son of Uncle Sam. Little causes produce great effects, and one must understand the British mind to realize that popular feeling in Britain is in unison with the anti-American policy of the Gov- ernment, since Britons have seen snatched away their sporting glories which nobody before had dared to dispute. The British consider themselves humiliated, harassed by parvenus of the New World. The Americans to-day not only have more in- dustry, more gold, more expansive force, but also better and more skilful cricketers. This appears to be a monopoly of the gifts which before the war belonged solely to Great Britain. In such a state of mind the British public must feel itself at one with its Government in extending the alliance with Japan; and while the City financiers are finding a means of beating the United States, which wishes to retain its monopoly of the world's oil production, the man in the club and the street thinks of the day of vengeance for the rout suffered on the polo-ground at Hurlingham."
(An exquisite example of the art of seeming to know without really knowing. The American cricketers are as new to us as the anti-American feeling in this country.—En. Spectator.]
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