THE CONTRASTS OF AMERICA SIR,—I am not surprised that Mr.
F. Fenton Prickett questions my statement regarding the proportion of wholly British blood in the American population, but I believe it to be accurate, although I cannot now quote my authority for it. It was, however, American. The propor- tion of wholly British stock—than is citizens who have descended from father and mother who were British—is very small. There are vast areas of population in the United States, mostly in the Middle West and South, who have no British blood in their veins. The Middle West stock is mainly German, Scandinavian, Polish and Italian in origin, while in New York the Jewish and Irish elements predominate.
I have visited cities where the majority of the population were German or Polish (Buffalo and Rochester, for instance) and where some of the newspapers were printed in those languages. Only in the New England States is any large proportion of the population British by descent. The great majority is a very mixed race but the resulting product is one of the finest in the world. It is an error, however, to think that the British people have made any large contribution, except in the traditions which influence the outlook of nearly all American citizens.—Yours sincerely, ANGUS WATSON. Whitewell, Adderstone Crescent, Newcastle-on-Tyne 2.
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