American opinion.—I am, Sir, Sua., Z.
"(To era Boma or roe 'New Tsar Trace.']
It is a pity there are so few Americans in England at present. Our countrymen are always welcome enough here and are never regarded as foreigners. Little eta ordinary Englishmen know about our politica or our geography, they know infinitely more about our minds and hearts than the peoples of the Continent. They have been wont to give us a friendly preference and an uncommon hospitality. But the war has shown that there exists in England something even more gratifying to our pride than a disposition to treat us pleasantly. It has revealed a general trust in our fairness and our willingness to make sacrifices for what we believe to be right. I have not discovered any marked tendency to flatter. That is not one of the English weaknesses. But a nation in trouble, looking round for another nation capable of appreciating her motives, her sorrow, and her sources of moral strength, turns with a brightening countenance toward the West and says to herself The American people understand.
That is why I am sorry there are so few Americans in England now. For if ever we who are here had reason to feel proud of our °Gantry it is when this respect is being paid to her by those whose good opinion Americans have always valued most highly. From Hyde Park to St. Paul's the flags of the Allies have fluttered and faded in the winter rain along the two great thoroughfares of Loudon, and among them, here and there, the Stan and Stripes. I do not say that Englishmen really think the United States ought to enter the alliance. But they oxide:dig rely on our understanding them ; and I sometimes ask myself: What if they are mistake's? What f commercial instincts and interests and a narrow 'patriotism' have maths us, after all, incapable of the generous sympathy which we are credited with possessing ? Do the English rate too high our good sense and good feeling ? They attribute to us a strong dislike for militarism and a high degree of penetration. They say that we, of all people, are least likely to overlook the gross and palpable faun that Germany planned the war, seined her opportunity, and violated Belgian neutrality, which Great Britain was bound by treaty to defend. No German afterthonghts should be allowed to overlie these fundamental facts. If it was a crime for Russia to mobilise last July it was Sb crime for Germany to have built strategic railroads and laid detailed plans of invasion months and years before. Britain certainty was not prepared. She has plenty of recruits, but con- fessedly not enough uniforms to clothe them nor enough rifles to arm them. I see companies and battalions almost every day which. for weeks have been drilling in civilian dress and without weapon". They are in splendid physical condition and know the manual of arms, but are still as defenceless as flocks of sheep.
As they march they sing our old battle hymn...Glory, Glory, Hallelujah] and an American onlooker feels that they are not merely of the same blood-as most of us, but related to us as no foreigners can be—by language, morals, manners, laws, and out- look on life. Indeed, they are more like us than we are like our- selves, more like the 'typical American' whom we have idealised, the old-fashioned kind of long ago. They remind me of Cooper's heroes and the men of Valley Forge—quiet, undemonstrative, grimly resolved. In physical appearance, with their high noses, straight backs, and long legs, the men of Kitchener's Army recall the pictures of Washington's men.
I have been much impressed with the almost complete absence of expressions of hatred against the enemy. Even the indis- criminate slaughter of women and children at Scarborough and Hartlepool has not provoked a spirit of vindictiveness in this well-balanced and self-restrained race. I was in Italy after the campaign in Abyssinia, and remember that the blank walls were covered with scurrilous writing. I have heard Germans denounce France, and Frenchmen rave against 'the barbarians.' But the English do not unpack their hearts with words. Mothers and fathers tell me calmly that their sons have enlisted. • It is terrible,' they say, but England could do no less.' And I should be a monster of cynicism did I not believe them sincere. The English people and their Government did not want war and did not expect it. This increasingly democratic country, at the moment when it was applying itself more than ever to the problems of social and political justice, when it had made South Africa virtually an independent nation and granted the demands of Ireland, and was providing for the future of working men, found itself obliged to stand by its solemn pledges and defend not only Belgium but the world against an unprovoked attack. And that the sacrifice should be made as calmly, so completely, and with so little evidence of bad temper should, I think, appeal to Americans who cherish the same ideals. We have far more rause for inter- vention in behalf of the Allies than we had for the war of 1812, or the Mexican War, or the Spanish War. But apart from inter- vention there is much that we can do to shorten this agony. We can be patient when friction occurs between our Government and that of Great Britain over maritime difficulties. We can as individuals abstain from trading directly or indirectly with Germany. It is absurd to suppose that anybody who is not a cold-blooded egoist can really be neutral Official neutrality may be maintained; but the soul is free, and surely the soul of America is not so recreant to the ancient principles of liberty and justice as to withhold at least moral support from those who, in the British Isles and in France, are giving up all they possess to defend the right. Gamlen MCLIIIAN HARM. 2 Kensington Crescent, London, February 11th, 1925."
Previous page
