The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 1911. DR. FINDLAY'S IMPRESSIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 135, 8 June 1911, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 1911. DR. FINDLAY'S IMPRESSIONS.

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New Zealanders of all shades of political convictions should read with appreciation th* remarkably interesting comments offered by our Attorney-General upon some of the political and social problenis of Canada and the United States.. Dr. | Fi_(_ay"s exceptional powers of observation have evidently been well employed dmr_ig his trip across the great Continent, and his communication to Mr. Fowlds, which appears elsewhere in this issue, should certainly enhance his already high reputation for keen and in- | ciaive criticism. One of the facts that has ■struck Dr. Findlay most forcibly during : his travels ie the immense influx of foreigners into the United States and Canada. Already 49 distinct languages are spoken in New York; and within 40 years, it has been calculated, more than 75 per cent of the whole population of the United States will be of foreign parentage or of foreign extraction. The consequences of this infusion of alien elements into the nation are difficult to foretell. Mr. H. G. Wells, in his remarkiable study of "The Future in America," draws an evil augury for the coming days from, this constant inflow of ignorant, half barbarian strangers from the slums and ghettos of Eastern and Central Europe. "The immigrant," he tells us, in to weaken and confuse the counsels of Labour, to serve the purpose of corruption, to complicate any economic and social development; ahove all, to retard enormously the development ot that national consciousness and will on which the hope of the future depends." Aad Dr. Findlay appears to agree with him that the outlook for the United States is not being improved socially or politically by this admixture of aliens, which, if it had no other effect, could hardly fail to militate against genuine sympathy and lasting goodwill between the United States and England.

fOn —_3 Tt_illy import—at topic, the [present and future relations of England with America, Dr. Findlay has a number of acute observations to make. No doubt these foreign elements must in time profoundly modify the original AngloSaxon type. (But on the other hand, are we not too ready to assume that the Americans, 6_ciply because they speak English, are closely akin to ourselves? Dr. Findlay believes that -we overestimate the possession of a common language as a hond of sympathy, and that we «re too ready to ignore the historical antipathy, the memory of past grievances and the commercial jealous__ that have so long kept the two nations apart. We must not imagine that because a. cultured minority in the United States are working for closer union with England, therefore the bulk of the people ore anxious to regard us as friends and brethren. Still Dr. Findlay believes that something of the antagonism painfully prominent _ generation ago has died ont; and more especially since tih c Americans have proved their commercial and industrial superiority in so many ways they are less jealous of England, and therefore more eynrpathe—oally _icli—ed toward us .than 'before.. There is probably much troth in these remarks, as also in Dr. Findlay's es-mate of the' st—to of public opinion in Canada. In the great Dominion, too, there ia a constantly-grow--1 ing foreigp element, to say not—ing of the' large French-Canadian section of the populace, and in spite of their unimpeachable loyalty Dr. Findlay evidently does not think that the Canadians are so closely akin to England in spirit and sympathies «s "colonials" on this side of tbe world. As to the Reciprocity problem, Dr. Findlay expects that the treaty will be adopted, but he sees no reason to believe that there ia the remotest prospect of anything resembling annexation or even tho submergence of one nation In the other. But Reciprocity would certainly draw the Americans and the Canadians closer to- > getter; and another influence tending |in the same direction he finds in the necessity _i_ upon the Canadian as well as the American Government for taking precautions against possible danger from the J"ajr East, Already the immigration of Japanese and Chinese has caused trouble on the Pacific Coast, and nothing but joist action by the two countries will enable them to keep the continent safe from the Yellow PerU. Such concerted action would undoubtedly bring the American and British nations into closer and mOTe harmonious contact; and Dr. Findlay throws an interesting sidelight on the arbitration question I when he reminds us that the Americans as a nation hate war, fear foreign aggres- ( i siveness and militarism, and in spite of ' many misunderstandings believe that i England stands for the world's peace. Assuredly, if Canada's closer intimacy with the United States should clear the way for a united effort by the Englishspeaking nations to a'bolisn war, Reciprocity may yet well prove a blessing in disguise