“LTTLE ISLAND.”

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 5 November 1924, Page 8

“LTTLE ISLAND.”

AMERICAN IGNORANCE. SYDNEY DOCTOR AMAZED. “During my tour of America I was perfectly amazed at the ignorance displayed, even by well-educated people, on matters Australian,” observed Dr. John McVittie, of Macquarie Street, Sydney, who has just returned from a World tour. “In illustration I give two short stories. On one occasion when travelling to San Francisco from the middle States, an American in the railroad car asked where I was going, and suggested Honolulu. I replied that I was going further than that —in fact, to Australia. ‘Oh,’ said he, ‘that’s the little island which Britain mandated after the war, isn’t it?’ ” Dr. McVittie’s other story concerned a well-educated lady, who received on a trans-Atlantic liner a letter from an equally well-educated friend in Chicago asking the question whether the Australians had yet come into possession of electric light! “This colossal ignorance,” remarked Dr. McVittie, “is undoubtedly due to the American’s self-satisfied spirit, his absolute love of self and country, and his educational curriculum, which mainly teaches, ‘Our Flag; our Country; there’s nobody else in the world!”