ENGLISHMEN IN U.S.A.

Evening Star, Issue 20636, 8 November 1930, Page 21

ENGLISHMEN IN U.S.A.

AN INHERITED SUSPICION “ Any Briton who defends Ips country in tho United States is instantly stigmatised as a ‘ propagandist,’ the implication being that he is manipulating tho facts to prevent the truth from appearing, whereas anyone, especially il ho be a Briton, who attacks this country is instantly supposed to be a sterling person, passionately pursuing the truth,” says Mr St. John Ervine, in a letter to ‘ The Times.’ “ Indians who put their case before American readers or audiences are not propagandists: Irishmen who preach the doctrines of Sinn Fein and Irish Republicanism aro not propagandists; but anybody who ventures to remark that all the villainy in the world is not in Great Britain, and all tho virtue elsewhere is a propagandist, even to tho American friends of this country. . . .1 imagine that this suspicion of British opinion, when it is favourable to Britain, is an inheritance from the days of the revolution, and 1 recollect that Mr Lawrence Stallings, a distinguished American dramatist, who is of British descent, told me during my last visit to America that if an Irish-American boasts of his Irish ancestry everybody in hearing regards him as a worthy fellow. So with a German-American, an Italian-American, or NorwegianAmerican, or any other sort of American except one. Let an American but mention that ho is of English descent, and instantly all the others will unite to cal] him a snob! May 1 express my belief that the effort to avoid irritating ’ Americans by defending pur country when it is attacked is being overdone? Frankly, Ido not care whether I irritate Americans or any other people by stating what I believe to be the truth about my country. Heaven forbid that we should seem always to bo apologising for ourselves, but, heaven forbid, too, that wo should stand tamely by while we are aspersed or misrepresented on the ground that if wo dare to defend ourselves or to correct mis-statements we shall upset people.”