THE ENGLISH

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18955, 4 March 1936, Page 9

THE ENGLISH

A DUTCH COMMENTARY

"ARE THEY HUMAN?"

LONDON, Feb. 1

The delay in the Royal funeral profession, and the mishandling of the crowds lining the route of the cortege, last Tuesday, prompted the Manchester -iuardiaii to invite comments from Dr. lienier, the author of "The EnglishAre They Human?" Dr. Renier is a talented Dutchman, who lectures in English history at the i.ondon University, and he has been credited with the theory that English people, by their perfect discipline and .rnpeccable public behaviour in the mass, arc not to be considered as normal human beings. Asked whether the incidents on J uesday had affected his attitude, he wrote: "No, no. it's not quite as easy as that! J shall pass over flic fact thai J never said that the English are not human. Legend is more powerful than truth, and, besides, it is not unpleasant to be the centre, of a little lugeud. The fact that you think a trifling unpunctuality of 43 minutes .substantiates your claim to belong to normal is, however, something no observer of Haigland can allow to pass unchallenged. We all know that Fascism's one ground for self-congratulation is that it runs its trains to time. All Europe lias gone punctual. You have once more sitiguJarised yourselves.

"What matters is the behaviour of your crowds. It is so strikingly different from anything you would observe on the Continent in similar circumstances, that I am on the point of becoming converted to what is supposed to lie my own theory. A French friend of mine stood in the queue outside Westminster Hall for three and a half hours, lie saw the lying-in-state, and was impressed. But what impressed him most was the crowd itself. As he put it to me afterwards: 'They are "epatants." thosp English. Not a murmur.'

"A Dutch Fascist -we have three Fascist parties!—once said to me: 'Your English don't require Fascism. They are the most disciplined nation in the world.' T have seen your Jubilee, t have seen your potato queues during the war. Only once in my 23 years of English life have I seen your people get out of hand. T was in Trafalgar Square on Armistice Day. in 1919 . And then there was some excuse. Besides, the heroes of the occasion were Australians."