A PEACE CENTENARY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1662, 31 January 1913, Page 4

A PEACE CENTENARY.

Christmas Eve, ,1914, will mark the hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of ' Ghent, which closed the. Anglo-American War "of 1812. A century of peace between the two great* English-speak-, ing nations—the worldY greatest Empire and tho world's richest and most powerful republic—has, suggested to a, number of prominent citizens of the , United Kingdom,' America, and Canada, the idea, of a celebration "of such,a character's •will impress the popular imagination, and tend to strengthen still' further, those tics of mutual affection and goodwill' which already ..unite, in common hopes and aspirations, the peoples of .tho Empire and, tho Republic"—tho quotation is from an address delivered by Earl. Grey, the principal speaker at a meeting which was held recently at the Mansion House, London, for the purpose' of forwarding, the movement. The promoters havo in viow the purchase of Sulgrave Manor, the ancestral home'of the Washington ' family in Northamptonshire, England, at a cost of £25,000, a monument to the memory of Washington, at Westminster Abbey,, arid the creation of lectureships, publication of .school readers, and awards of prizes, as instruments for the propagation of peace doctrines, and the establishing of an affectionate public • sentiment between the two nations, the total cost to bo something in the neighbourhood, of £60,000. No doubt sufficient enthusiasm will' bo created on both sides to enable these specified I objects to be attained. We must confess, however, to some dOubt on the '.point made by the various speakers at the meeting at the .Mansion House, and by certain distinguished correspondents who were unavoidably absent from the meeting, that the great mass of the English-speak-ing peoples of both nations will be impressed by this display of international affection. A great many people seem to forget that although the United States of America oi'ig-' inatcd in a colony founded by peoplo of true British stock, the representatives of that, stock constitute to-day but a fraction of tho immense and steadily-increasing population absorbed by that territory. 'The United States nation is a conglom-, orate of nil nations', and the racial types which tend at urcsont to dom«.

inate the political and commercial interests—and it is here that the susceptibilities of nations are most sensitive—are unquestionably foreign. That the Anglo-Saxon tongue establishes a community of thought and intercourse is undoubtedly a factor which conduces to a good understanding, but, as our experience of the American politician in the delicate matter of the Panama Canal' tolls has amply demonstrated, it would be foolish to rely upon the expectation that such , sentimental considerations will influcnco tho current of any controversial question between the two nations- where-, in the interests of each arc.in sharp;, conflict. Speaking broadly, there arc two factors, which, on tlio. American side, tend to operate against the establishment of ia permanent basis of ■ peace. Tho. first arises from the fact, proved over and over again in the history of political/and commercial ."graft," that, tho foreign element in the American? population is often . self-seeking; 1 ; opportunist, and Uninspired by what may bo termed that "civic .sense" which makes for the creation of. tho true patriotic spirit, The second lies in that spirit of arrogance—a spirit not Anglo-Saxon at all—which is so characteristic of public, sentiment in'the United . States, - and which is liable, in a' delicate crisis, to bo fanned by public feeling into a blaze of militant' rivalry, extremely embarrassing to diplomacy.. Such a.:rapprochement as the Committee of-the Peace' Centenary hopes to achieve ultimately, if not, immediately,- is not impossible, i ißu'tjono must not forget that the"' United States nation, by alien, immigration, is absorbing with its new population; alien instincts and ideals, reflecting; the interests and ambitions of individuals to whom Britain is but a name.' A s welcome is due to every _ movement that is likely toestablish friendly relations; between the two countries, even to the point of a treaty between them, but it is to go'beyond reason to hope \that there is now in America any strong Bense of real national kinship with Great Britain. ■ .. ■{■~;. ;,