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Hokitika Guardian, 12 April 1933, Page 4

‘'Friendships between nations cannot exist in the same sense as between individuals,” said Mr Andrew W. Mellon, former. American Ambassador, in a farewell speech in London. “As individuals we can choose whom we like for friends; and, if we are wise, we can avoid business dealings with them. But this is not possible with nations, nor is it desirable. We must live as best we can with all of them, recognising that 'there must be a certain amount of . give and take .and even irritation and misunderstanding, because no people can ever fully share another’s point of view or correctly visualise conditions in another country. The British and Amereian people can most nearly do this, .perhaps, because wp .share so many things in common, not the least important of which, I am sometimes inclined to think, is common sense. Our common language, about which we hear so much, is in some respects more of a hindrance than a help. Too often it serves as a channel of communication for things that were better left unsaid, with results that make us believe with St. Paul that ‘Evil, communications corrupt good manners.’ Differences between us there, will always be. and things, will he said on both sides of flic Atlantic that will make the judicious grieve.. These things must be; and while they may affect, a country’s popularity, which is, after all, a thing of the moment and in the lives of nations is not important, they do not have the power to destroy friendship between nations, especial!v wlic’ l it is based, as in the ease of England and America, on mutual respect and a general fooling of moving in the same direction, in history and along parallel lines that need never collide ”