THE ENGLISHMAN AND HIS UMBRELLA

Evening Star, Issue 22618, 9 April 1937, Page 7

THE ENGLISHMAN AND HIS UMBRELLA

WORSHIP OF REALISM Dr Lin Yu-Tahg is a Chinese who feels an .affinity with ..the English. In the course of an address given by him before • the Mid-Pacific Association _ in Shanghai and reprinted in' the ‘ Review of Reviews,’ he said ; “ I am, going to speak about England in particular, for several reasons. First, because as a Chinese I feel all foreigners in; China are Englishmen.' The international settlement in Shanghai, is known among the Chinese as the ‘ British settlement,’ and we are probably right. Secondly, because the English show more sense and less sensibility. I would rather at any time twist the British lion’s tail than pinch the whiskers of a Japanese marine. The British lion has a better sense of humour. And, thirdly, because I feel I understand England better, I feel t’’a spirit of the English people is more akin to the spirit of the Chinese people, for both nations are worshippers of realism and common sense. ' Both people have a profound distrust of logic and are extremely suspicious of arguments that are too perfect. “The English Constitution is a masterpiece of patchwork, and yet in spite of its being patchwork it offers the English people a real guarantee of their civil rights. The. English form of government is in itself a contradiction, a monarchy in name and a democracy in reality, and somehow the English people do not feel any conflict in it. The English mrofess the greatest love for and loynlity to their King, and then proceed to limit the expenditures of the Royal household through their Parliament. Some day England will yet become a Bolshevik State with the English King still on his throne, and under the leadership of a most die-

hard Conservative Cabinet. I feel confident that the basis of English democracy will stand the strain of any crisis it may have to pass through, just by its sheer (jogged sense of reality and a kind of robust animal instinct for life. “ And so there goes the Englishman, with his umbrella and unashamed of his umbrella, refusing to talk any

language but his own, demanding marmalade in an African jungle and unable to forgive bis boy for not producing holly and a plum pudding in an African desert on Christmas Eve, so sure of himself, so terribly cocksure of himself, and so terribly decent. There is an inevitability about his words and actions and gestures when be is not

looking like a dumb, persecuted animal. \ou could predict exactly what an Englishman would do even when he sneezes. He would take out his handkerchicf—for he always has a handkerchief—and mutter something about a * beastly cold.’ And you could tell what is going on in his mind about soup and going home to have a hot bath, all

as inevitable as that the sun is going to rise in the east next morning But you could not upset him. That cheekiness is not very lovely, but is very imposing. In fact, he has gone rouiid conquering the world with that bluff and cheekiness, and his success in doing so is his justifications “ I sometimes feel that the Bank of England can never fall just because the English people believe so, that it cannot be closed simply because *it isn’t done.’ The, Bank of England is decent. So is the English Post Office. So is the Manufacturers’ Life Assurance. So is the whole British Empire, all so decent, so inevitably decent. I am sure Confucius himself would have found England the ideal country to live in.”