BRITAIN AND AMERICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20235, 20 April 1929, Page 14 (Supplement)

BRITAIN AND AMERICA.

r A QyiET OBJECT LESSON.

AMBASSADOR'S - STORY,

FAULT OF EXAGGERATION.

[JROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] NEW YORK, March 20. Sir Esme Howard, British Ambassador to the United States, who sometimes departs from convention to make his point in a public address, took the anniversary of Washington's birthday as the occasion for reading a quiet object lesson to the anti-British element that has been growing since the cruiser controversy. Addressing a joint gathering of three American patriotic societies, he first expressed . his VOwn conviction that Britishers and Americans on the'; whole desired to live in friendship with one another. But, he added, there wore still some people in both countries who tried to stir up trouble, and for their especial benefit he told a little story that moved his audience deeply. ■ " We' are celebrating hero to-day," said Sir Esme, " the birthday of George [Washington, founder of this country, who was without question one of the greatest men in the history of the world, and, what is perhaps more, one of the noblest characters in the history of the world. Meditating on this short address which 1 had /to make to you, I fell into a reverie. It seemed to me that on the birthday of that great man I ought to pay my respects to him at Mount Vernon. So] availing myself of Einstein's theory of relativity, I projected myself into space j nt a rapidity greater than that of light j to a place where the terrestrial events of the year 1798 were still in full swing. Having arrived there I took a horso and set out for Mount Vernon. " On arrival I was met at the door by an old - negro servant, who showed me nitQ' /General Washington's library, that library we all know so well. llio general, dressed as we know him in the picture by Gilbert Stuart hanging in the ,White House, came to meet me with all that old-world courtesy and dignity that was his, and made me welcome. After lie had shown mo over the house and grouuds, so that I could fully admire that wonderful setting for a wonderful personality, the general offered me some refreshment, after which- we sat- down to a pipe of his home-grown tobacco and began to talk. " He asked me what I thought of these United States. I told him all the wonderful things I had seen here—of the, to me, almost overwhelming prosperity o this country, of the boundless activity and cheerfulness of its people, of the amazing cities of the marvellous development ot machinery, of the progress in pure science, of the' more recent, blossoming of the aits..Another Side to the Picture. "The general listened in satisfaction as I proceeded. Then he asked, 1 But is there no other side to the picture? I answered, ' There is, perhaps, one which at this moment occurs to me,' and I hesitated, but he said, 'Speak on.' So I said, ' Well, general, if you wish it, 1 wilt say this, that I have noticed that in political discussions regarding either domestic or foreign questions there is a tendency in this country, perhaps more than elsewhere, to indulge in somewhat unmeasured language. He)looked at me straieht. Then, methought, he smiled half humorously, and half sadly, and he said slowly, '1 have suffered from that "sS Esme Howard was obviously referring to the Chicago Congressman, Air. r. A. Britten, Chairman of the House Naval Committee, whose latest outburst, in reviewing the British Naval . bsl,n, f that Great-Britain's policy is to build a navv equal-to the combined navies ot the vest of the world.