ANGLO-SAXON TIES

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 41, 16 August 1918, Page 4

ANGLO-SAXON TIES

A UNION MADE CLOSER

WAR WIPES OUT BOUNDARY

LINES

FRIENDSHIP AND TRADE,

Tho effect of the war in drawing closer the union of Anglo-Saxon peoples in Canada and the United States of America was the subject of a speech by the Hon. Hugh Guthrie (Canadian Solicitor-General) at the convention of the International Association of Rotary Clubs at Kansas, Missouri, on 26th June. "Since we became Allies in the great war," said Mr. Guthrie (according to a report in the Toronto Globe), "wo in Canada have learned to regard you of the United States with feelings much nearer akin to brotherly love than to mere neighbourly esteem. The international boundary line seemed to fade from the map on the sth of April, 1917, when this great country cast in its lot with, the Allied nations, and finally declared war on Germany. We have been comrades-in-arms upon land, upon sea, and in the air, for over fifteen months, and the hope and prayer of the people of Canada is at this moment that no geographical or other line demark&tion or limitation shall cause any division between these two countries or these two peoples until tho great conflict now being waged in Europe shall have been fought and won, and then not for generations, nay, not for centuries to come. Our compact in this instance is a most sacred one; our pause is the cause of humanity and: civilisation, and our determination to 'carry on' till a victorious and triumph' ant and permanent peace shall have been secured is as fixed and immovable as aro the everlasting hills. WORLD DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF. "Pruasianism and the idea of an en= during peace among nations cannot be bought into harmony. Therefore, Prussianism must go. before peace can come, World-dominion is the central and controlling thought of Prussian!am, and under it email nations have no rightto independent existenco, can have no place in the sun, in the judgment of Prussianism. Small nations may exist only by the leave or at the pleasure of tho central or higher power under the Prussian theory. But under democratic ideals the smaller nations shall exist by virtue of their inherent right and at their own, pleasure, Without responsibility to any central or higher authority. While internationally they must conform to the world's standards, internally they may adopt their own. Democracy must champion the cause of small nations. There must be a single standard' for nations, both great and email. A CENTURY OP PEACE. "As between Great Britain and the United 1 States and consequently as between Canada and the United States there has been an uninterrupted! century of peace. We have an international boundary line of well nigh 6000 miles, upon which, there is not to be found one frowning fortress or one single gun emplacement. This should be an object lesson to the whole world. We have ito international difficulty which cannot be adjusted by simple submission to arbitration. The United States and Great Britain set an example to the world when the treaty of 1908 was agreed to by both nations. Thie' treaty provides that all legal questions and the interpretation of all treaties shall be settled by arbitration. It means that practically every question which can possfiiy arise between the two countries save only questions wheh may involve the national honour, shall be settled by peaceful means and by the avoidance of an appeal to armed force. It is a matter of congratulation that so recently as the 4th of June last file provisions of this international treaty were continued for a further term of five years. Why not make it permanent? The overwhelming weight of public opinion in Great Britain and Tfce United States would, I believe, endorse a permanent arrangement. ANGLO-SAXON ENTENTE. . "There should be an entente cordiale between the Anglo-Saxon nations of the world. The people of the United States and of Great Britain are largely people sprung from the same great race. We start from the same starting point. Our language, our history, our literature, our laws, arid our customsare to a very large extent the same as yours. Your early ancestors and mine may have fought side by side, or man against man, and died or conquered as Hastings. Your ancestors and mine may have paced the quarter-deck together, or loaded, aimed, and fired the old brass guns that put to flight the Spanish Armada off the coast of Plymouth years before the Mayflower weighed anchor in the old harbour of Plymouth and set sail for America. Our ancestors were both Cavalier and Roundhead in the battles of the King against the Parliament. Our common ancestors settled the Royal Succession after the Revolution of 1688, and in a large measure settled also the constitution rights and privileges of British subjects. Little wonder that now under a great world strain, where human liberty is at stake, whore Anglo-Saxon ideals are hanging in the balance, that the various branches of the great Anglo-Saxon family should be drawn closer together than ever they were before. We are fighting side by side in the trenches in France and in Flanders. We are fighting ship alongside ship in the British Channel, in the North Sea, and on the broad Atlantic, and we are fighting together in the blue heavens which are above us. Men who go forth to fight together, and if nc^be to bleed and die together, have $> stronger borid of sympathy between them than others can possibly entertain. Men who together bare their breasts to tho shot and shell of a common foe should forever afterwards, be . inseparable. From henceforth we should be able to greet each other not only as neighbours, but as kinsmen and companions—companions and brothers-in-arms upon the fi«ld of honour in our joint effort for the safety of the world. ANGLO-AMERICAN TRADE. "The trade between Great Britain and the United States is by a great preponderance the heaviest international trade between any two countries in the world. Taking the trade returns of the United States for the year ending 31st December, 1917, Great Britain purchased from the United States during that year over 2,000,C00,000d01. worth of goods, while the United States purchased from Great Britain 280,000,C00d01. Tho total trade in exports and imports between the United States and the United Kingdom were more than double your trade with France, more than five times your trade with Italy, more than six times your trade with Japan, more than five times your trade with Russia. But what of your trade with Canada,' apart from your trade with the United Kingdom? And here let me say that no question of munitions avisos to swell the figures. The total export and import trade of the United States i'w 1917 with nil foreign, countries was something over 9,000,000,----(JOO. This represented your trade with tliH whole world upon the basis of exports and imports, and more-than oneeighth of that total was trade done with Canada. Canada with a. population of 7.500.000 bowght from the United States BS9,OOa<XX>drii, worth of good*, and we told to the Uuitc.4 States during the

same year 413,000,000d01, worth of goods, making the total trade about 1,250,000,000401. as between Canada and the United States. In tho same year more than one-eighth of your total exports were purchased by Canada. Next to the United Kingdom, Canada is your largest foreign customer. Good trade generally makes good friends—better' trade should make better friends, and I trust that at some time in the future we may find that freer trade may make firmer friends, at least as between the two great countries upon this continent.