SENSITIVE FOREIGNERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 140, 15 June 1937, Page 8

SENSITIVE FOREIGNERS

Signor Mussolini, on the authority of Professor Zimmcrn, resenls the term "dago" as applied to Italians. No doubt he does, for he has done much to remove from the British mind the impression that the principal industry of Italians is organgrinding or the selling of penny ices in summer and roasted chestnuts in winter. However, the fact is undeniable that by their frugality and industry some Italians who began business in England .in such small ways as street organists and icecream selling have attained prominent positions in England as business men. At the same time foreigners are naturally sensitive about the names applied to them. Japanese do not like being called "Japs," nor Chinese "Chinks," and educated coloured peoples, -many of them British subjects, object strongly to being dubbed "niggers." The origin of the appellation "dago" will probably be found among British seamen, who used it as an easy description to apply to Mediterranean sailors, just as they class all German and Baltic sailors as "squareheads" and those of British North America as "bluenoses," terms more convenient 'than polite, and not necessarily applied in contempt. But what does Signor Mussolini think of "wop," the American designation of Italians, Greeks, anq Levantines in general? He has not said. But,all peoples have the right to be1 called what they call themselves, and there can be no valid reason why ' the nationals of II Duce should not becalled Italians. Coming right "home, British subjects who have migrated to the Dominions have the right to be described and addressed as English, Scotch, Welsh, or Irish rather than "pommies" or "homies," as they sometimes are, and not always in a complimentary sense, either. Politeness is one of the cheapest of lubricants to apply to international relations, and its effects on reduction of friction between peoples of different races and ideals has everything to commend it.