AMICABLE RELATIONS.

Northern Advocate, 25 April 1921, Page 2

AMICABLE RELATIONS.

BRITAIN AND AMERICA

Sentiments of mutual esteem, admiration, find friendship, combined with mutual expressions of good wishes, wore the harmonious chords that prevailed in the farewell banquet given in London on February 28 to Air John W. Davis, tbe American Ambassador, who wa* returning home after three years' sen ice. Of him it was written that ''his conspicuous eloquence has given delight to thousands of people, and his powerful efforts in the preservation of Anglo-American amity, as well as his kindly participation in many cf our own national functions, have endeared him to till PJnolishmev.. The banquest was only one of many functions organised to express to Mr Davis the esteem in which he was held, and the -pleasure of his friendship and acquaintance. But it was at the banquet that national sentiment found vent in eloquent, phrases. Lord Curzon, who proposed the toast. . ,of the eve nine, recpssarily enjoyed the privilege of saying the / first words. After eulogising their guest, he proceeded:—He would be able to toll the American people that wo were not bad fellows after all; that we recognised the proud position and the high destination of his country; that we regarded without the slightest jealousy her ships,her wealth, her trade, even her plethora of successful Ambassadors —that, the idea of conflict between his country and ours is not only unthinkable, but it is a proposition which anybody who knows anything of either country will abhor with the last breath of his existence. Tf those were the ideas with which Mr Davis went back to America he would be able to render sqrviccs as great as anything he had accomplished during his stay in this country. They regarded hi? work done here with admiration, with respect, and even with deep affection. Mr Davis concluded his reply in these eloquent terms: —'What of Great Britain and America? Wo read the other day that a hypothetical official ; had remarked to a mysterious reporter that we were drifting to perdition, or some other resort. lam grateful to both these mythical gentlemen for the shock which they administered. It '/•as like an electric current that proves by tho patients' prompt reaction that his nervous system is sound. Nothing could have been more gratifying than tho way in which public opinion in both countries rose to denounce the mere suggestion of a possible breach between us. How could it be otherwise Let us forget, if you choose* the currents of sentiment that flowbroad and. deep between us; let us' ignore, if you will, the strong cement of blood drawn from a common source and shed in a common cause; let us even admit that the chains of the moral law do not always bind amhition —and still, as reasoning animals,

what good thing can our nations seel apart which they will not find in largei measure if t'hey pursue it side by side! What legitimate aim has Great Bri tain which American co-operation will not promote? What lawful find doc? America contemplate which Britisli support will not' help to attain? That wc can hinder each other is clear, but that we can greatly aid each other is clearer still. ' We have each great opportunities to meet; great problems to solve, problems singularly alike 'in many respects, and" great burdens to bear. Let us meet, and solve, and bear them together. For myself, I have an unwavering, an indestructible faith in what for better name may be called the 'sportsmanship' in the faculty of compromise, in the love of justice which animates both peoples. If one is right and the other wrong, the one in the wrong will admit it, as he lias done in the past, with no sense of injured pride or wounded egotism. If neither is wholly wrong, nor wholly right, we shall know how to give and take aiul to find, as we have done in the past, the golden mean of compromise between our contending interests. If compromise and agreement fail, we shall both be ready, as we have beer in the past, to throw our fortunes int< "he scales of justice, and let the wisloni of impartial minds judge betweei is. Lord Grey has done well recent y to remind us both that we hav< iound ourselves tc this by soleinr reaty. Nor will either of us, join' leirs of the common law, forget it.' jrcat injunction so to use your owr hat you injure not another. "The British Empire and the United States are rather large vessels. Neither