Better Relationships For Britain And U.S.

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28252, 13 April 1957, Page 2

Better Relationships For Britain And U.S.

The strong divisions which prevailed between the United States and Britain during the Suez crisis would not be repeated if more extensive personal contacts were promoted between the countries, said Miss Helena Mills John to members of the Canterbury branch of the EnglishSpeaking Union at a luncheon yesterday. Miss Mills John is senior director of the union in London.

Though the English-Speaking Union was a non-political organisation, its members had a big job to do in creating the kind of conditions in which statesmen and politicians could do their work adequately, she said . It was more essential now than at any other time that there should be close harmony among the Englishspeaking countries and that personal contacts be made between the Commonwealth countries (including Australian and New Zealand) and the United States as well as between Britain and the United States. Education

For this reason the EnglishSpeaking Union’s educational exchanges were most important, she said. The union conducted exchanges of teachers between Britain and the United States, and provided university fellowships and exchanges between pupils of major schools for one scholastic year.

Travel grants w’ere also provided whereby journalists, young trade union officers, architects, designers, and key personnel in other fields could visit the United States or Britain on exchange, to learn more about each other’s country, and its ways and thinking.

Miss Mills John, who joined the staff of the English-Speaking Union 37 years ago'after graduating M.A. from Oxford University, said she was endeavouring on her present tour of Englishspeaking countries to develop educational exchanges between different parts of the Commonwealth and between the Commonwealth and the United States. Not Insuperable “There are difficulties, such as great distance and costs, but 1 think we can overcome them,” she said.

When the English-Speaking Union in London pioneered the idea of interchange of teachers between Britain and the United States in the early 1920’5, the response from principals of the schools had been poor. Only three had even bothered to reply to circulars sent out advocating the scheme of teacher exchanges, she said. One replied that the idea was preposterous, another

said that if the union hoped to have any future it should keep out of education, and the third expressed willingness “to give anything a go once." From the third principal’s school a teacher went to a school in the United States for a year and an American teacher joined the staff of the English school for the same time. “Now the scheme is so successful that the British Government pays 75 per cent, of the administration costs,” Miss Mills John said. Fellowship The English-Speaking Union in the United States had established the King George VI Memorial Fellowship, under which young persons from Britain and the Commonwealth could study for a year at an American university, she said. The first award of this fellowship allocated to New Zealand was won by Miss Joan Mary Anderson, of Dunedin, a candidate promoted by the Canterbury branch of the union. “Miss Anderson has been a wonderful ambassador for New Zealand in the United States,’’ said Miss Mills John. "Now we are looking forward to seeing Mr Steven Gentry, a graduate of Canterbury University College, who has won the second New Zealand award, go to New York.” The next conference of the English-Speaking Union will be held next October in Canada. About 200 delegates are expected to attend. “Something like 50 delegates will go from Britain, 30 from Canada, and 80 from the United States, and I hope there will be a strong representation from Australia and New Zealand,” said Miss Mills John.