ON HATING AMERICA [To the Editor of the SPi.crwroal Sin,-May
I enter a protest against the suggestion that better relations between the Americans and ourselves will be fur- thered by the publication of " frank opinions as to why we now dislilie each other," a sentence I am astonished to read in the Spectator? In three years' residence in the U.S.A. nothing im- pressed me more strongly than the Americans' sensitiveness to our opinion of their actions and their institutions : nothing was so unintelligible to them, and; incidentally, so hurting to their feelings, as the Englishinan's indifference to what the American may think of his actions.
' No one who has not lived there can credit the intense dislike felt in America for what they call " a knocker " (one who is toil free with criticism of his associates). A reputation for
knocking" is enough to ensure being blackballed for some of the best clubs : and even friendly family chaff is not under- stood there as it is with us. I value my many American friendships so highly that I deplore the publication in a journal so widely read there as the Spectator of • criticisms that can only hurt their feeling and arouse their resentment. We in England entirely fail to appreciate the intense spirit of kindliness pervading every class of life in the States : a kindliness expressed in a thousand ways foreign to the diffident and inarticulate Englishmen.-I am, Sir, &e.,
D. C.
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