ANGLO-AMERICAN ENTENTE

Evening Star, Issue 19616, 23 July 1927, Page 12

ANGLO-AMERICAN ENTENTE

MB HEART'S VIEWS Mr AV. B. Heard, the .American newspaper owner, made a speed) at Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., im acknowledging the conferment - -of an honorary degree, and amplified an earlier statement in advocacy of co-operation of the Englishspeaking peoples of the world to maintain peace, which appeared in our columns. The ‘Manchester Guardian’ reports the address, a section of which appears below. It will he seen Mr Hearst is outspoken in his views of Great Britain, and many will differ from his statement that some peoples of the British Empire aro more like the Americans than the people of the Homeland. Mr Hearst, alter introductory remarks, said: “As a matter of very obvious fact, England is far from being the British Empire. Indeed, the fact is now al most universally realised that England is much less of .a factor in.the British Empire than she was before'the Avar. England,- with her coal and iron- almost exhausted, her commerce diminished, her people partly impoverished and unempfoyedj would soon go the-oyay; of Holland if it were not for tho British Empire. , “ As it is, however, even if the greatness of England is on the wane, tho greatness of the British Empire is only just beginning." - Those London statesmen should realise this, and should realise this, too: that'’the British Empire is composed of several sections where tho people are more like the j people of the United States than they are like "the' inhabitants of the British I Isles. I “ I do .not mean to say that , there is any lack, of loyalty ''among- the people 1 of the .British, colonies. The subjects there sometimes seem more loyal to tho I Crown and to the Empife-thau are the 1 English themselves. But.in their manner of life and in . their v .manner of thought, , and in their actual interests and ■■international relations ;the people of the colonies are more like the American people than they are like the people of England. “'And if there is one .thing where they are particularly a unit with American thought and American, political policy it' is In the maintenance of the white man’s standard of living and the exclusion from their lands and their lives, of Oriental labor and Oriental conditions. i “ Obviously, then, there is no such I basis, in England’s colonies at least, for permanent, harmonious co-opera-tion with Japan as there is for permanent, harmonious co-operation with the people of the. United States of America, so similar to themselves in customs, standards, and ideals. “ Then there is tho question of language. Tho importance of this cannot bo over-estimated. The same language means tho same literature, the interchange'of the same thoughts, the crea-

tiou of, tho same ideals and of objectives, the education ot the people more and more in the same manners and in the same methods of procedure and progress. It means more than anything else the harmony of thought and action which creates practically the. same people. _ “Tho same races which speak different languages and live in conflict in Europe speak the same language and live in peace and harmony in America. Difference in language has done more to create misunderstandings and a>ntagonisnis and wars in Europe, than divergent ■ interests or disputes over boundaries, and I firmly believe that wo will never absolutely realise universal peace in the world until we have what amounts to a universal language. “The language will not be Volapuk or any other artificial Language, but it wilt he a gradual spread to universal use of the language which is most in use. French was the language of kings and courts, but this is a business ago. Industry is enthroned, finance is king, and English is tho language of commerce and the counting room. “With a combination of Englishspeaking nations and. the wide distribution ot English-speaking peoples English will soon become fho universal language, or at least, as in the case of the election of Themistocles, where every member of the Assembly voted for himself first and for Themistocles second, every nation will learn its own language first and English second, and the one language thus chosen to be used and understood throughout the world will be English. “ The spread of the English language through English and American cooperative action would therefore be a mighty influence ,to promote throughout the world the Anglo-American ideal of universal peace. . “ If we advance thus tentatively towards a more aaid more thorough understanding and towards a more and more complete co-operation for peace and mutual protection we surely do nothing to prejudice our own rights and interests or to impair the rights and interests of any other nation or group of nations. But we can positively do much to increase the security and the prosperity of all ■ the peoples of the earth, and so greatly to promote the welfare’ of the world.”