THE AMERICAN ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE WAR AND THE DEBTS [To
the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] St11,—Mr. Bausman in his letter upon the American attitude towards the War seems to show himself, I think, to be a little 'deficient in the prevision which is the essence of true states- manship. He says, " Not one of us in a hundred ever believed our own country to be in danger." But it is difficult to believe that the Kaiser, if Europe had lain prostrate at his feet, would have ultimately resisted the temptation of attacking the United States of America. For the goal of his swollen ambition seems to have been 'nothing less than dominion over the world, and to that dominion the United States would have barred the way. Scientific progress is from year to year rendering the isolation of America from European politics an impossibility. But, even without a declaration of war upon the United- States, the ex-Kaiser's interferences in South
America, especially perhaps in Brazil, would have led him soon or late to impugn the doctrine which bears the name of President Monroe, and the United States must then have resisted his policy or yielded to his power.
No Englishman can wish to disparage the high value of the service which the United States performed in the final scenes of the Great War, nor is there anyone who would seek to escape the burded, heavy as it is, of repaying the full debt of his country to the United States. But there can be little doubt that the Americans, who helped to save Europe from the peril of dissolution, saved their own country too.—I am, Sir, &c., The Deanery, Durham. J. E. C. WELI.DON.
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