The Evening Star SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 1937. “HANDS ACROSS THE SEA.”

Evening Star, Issue 22685, 26 June 1937, Page 14

The Evening Star SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 1937. “HANDS ACROSS THE SEA.”

The most beautiful memento of the Coronation wo have seen that is presented purely as an expression of sentiment, not weighted with a special charge, comes from an American city. It appears as an inset of the ‘ Christian Science Monitor,’ of Boston, published by the Christian Science Church. The ‘ Monitor ’ has long been known as one of the greatest newspapers in the world, a model to most others in the wideness of its interests and sympathies and the high tone it preserves. The inset consists of eight pages, and it is printed in colour, in large lettering, in the style of old illuminated missals. The text, thus executed, with the coats of arms in colour of Great Britain and the dominions and'decorative scroll work of the pages, has a remarkably rich effect, but not less striking than its appearance is the selection of letterpress for the inset. This consists of inspired sentences from the Coronation, service and, beneath a gorgeously coloured two-page map of the British Empire, Milton’s vision of a “ noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep and shaking her invincible locks,’ and a quotation from Emerson which might have been written to accompany it. “ Britain, I see her in her old age,” says the American sage, “ but young, and still daring to believe in her power of endurance, with strength still equal to the time.” No excerpt could have been better chosen; during almost one hundred years since it was written nothing has happened to bring its weighed tribute into dubiety. Were its truth more doubtful it is what every Briton must pray for—strength equal to the time. The inset, which includes portraits of the Royal Family, is itself only part of a Coronation number in four large sections presenting as much information on everything appertaining to the great ceremony as any published in Great Britain, in a spirit not distinguishable from theirs. The spirit comes in the one case from goodwill and in the other from loyalty. The effect is the same.

The friendly gesture goes further than we have indicated and is not , confined to the newspaper itself. President lloosovclt writes for the special number: —“The constructive service which the ‘ Christian Science Monitor 5 has consistently rendered to better understanding between nations is widely appreciated, in all parts of the world, and it is fitting that on this occasion of the Coronation of George VI. America’s interest in the progress and welfare of the British Commonwealth of Nations should be expressed in a Coronation supplement such as you have prepared. It is a simple statement of fact, but one which cannot be too often affirmed, that the United States and Great Britain have one great common concern—the preservation . of peace throughout the world. While national means and methods of contributing to a peace more secure and more stable may rightly vary, this common objective stands ever a common inspiration.” Practical, day to day effect, the newspaper comments, is being’ given to this objective in the two countries. Mr William Y. Elliott, of Harvard University, contributes an article on ‘ United States Looks at Britain,’ in which he notes: “ No'feat of world politics since the World War is so encouraging as the peaceful transformation of the great dominions into a cooperating partnership, whose weight in maintaining the jroacc of the world may well bo decisive.” It is a warm tribute which he pays to Britain’s social enactments and the British sense of law and order.

Dr Stefan Litauer, writing as the Polish President of tho Foreign Press Association in London, finds tolerance to be the basic principle of the Bri-

tisli Commonwealth. Ho describes a familiar ceremony in which the members of the House of Commons visit the House of Lords, “ headed by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, who walk together as a visible symbol of the basic idea by which this country is governed—the idea of equality of status between majority and minority, between Government and Opposition.” Tho Opposition is a part of tho Constitution in every British country. Mr Wickham Steed, a past editor of ‘ The Times,’ considers how Great Britain views tho United States. Ho notes that British people never think of Americans as foreigners, and ho believes that sympathy and desire to help, if possible, following tho news of America’s recent flood disasters, were quicker and sharper than they would have been if any other foreign country had been the sufferer. Since the writers on both sides have explanations to make, where difficulties on both sides may defer a closer rapprochement of policies desired by both countries, there is here an exchange of views which should conduce to closer understanding in tho future. The ‘ Christian Science Monitor ’ has wrought a real service to goodwill. Its Coronation number is a gesture which no Briton can fail to appreciate.