MR. KENNEDY'S OPINIONS SIR, —As a Briton living in America, and
one wno has American and British friendship at heart, may I express my regret at seeing the comments on Mr. Kennedy's return to this country that disfigure "A Spectator's Notebook" of December 15th? I cannot imagine anything more likely to damage relations between the countries. Why should it be assumed that Mr. Kennedy's return is for the purpose of "exhorting his countrymen to keep out of the war at any cost "? And should this be Mr. Kennedy's opinion, why should the American Government not listen to a man who is sent abroad partly so that the Government may have the benefit of his experience "on the spot "? Why, too, should the American Ambassador be required to be "more English than the English," considering that he is the American Am. bassador? The obvious reaction of Americans to your COM- ment can only be a strengthening of the suspicion that England expects every American to do his duty.
America is nine-tenths pro-Ally. At the same time she is scared, above everything else, of being played for a sucker, as she sincerely thinks she was in 1917. If America comes to the help of England she intends to do it with her eyes open. She will not be railroaded into it, and she suspects England of trying to railroad her. Please don't make mistakes like that again. It is bad tactics and bad taste.—Yours, 8rc., ALAN KEITH-LUCAS. 10921 Wade Park Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio.
[That Mr. Kennedy went home and exhorted his country- men to keep out of the war at any cost is a matter of public record.—En. Spectator.]
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