THE UNITED STATES

Southland Times, Issue 19859, 3 May 1926, Page 5

THE UNITED STATES

A NEWS LETTER. (From Our Correspondent.) San Francisco, Apr. 7. Samuel G. Blythe is known as a newspaper man all over the United States. Last year he visited Australia, and in a recent number of a widely-read periodical he describes his adventures under the heading: “A Country That Imports Trouble.” He starts out with the cactus in Queensland, the bugs to tight the cactus, the rabbits and foxes, the labour agitators and reds, the British seamen’s strike, and concludes with nearly everything that could be imported into Australia to foment trouble. Mr Blythe doesn’t like the copying of everything English, especially when he says the English know little about Australia. All the clerks carry little suit cases, continues the critic, and the men wear bowler hats and heavy clothes in hot weather. All barber shops are behind tobacconist shops. The Australian doesn’t like to be referred to merely as “a primary producer.” There was a failure to initiate like the Americans did when they left England. Mr Blythe pays his respect to the Sydney Domain on Sunday afternoons, and “a better dressed, better looking lot I never saw.” “The man who laid out Melbourne had vision,” says the critic, “but the men who built Melbourne stuck up alongside those wide streets a collection of buildings that look like Manchester and Liverpool, and not at all like a city in the Antipodes.” “The tyranny of tea” is dealt a heavy blow, and “a modicum of prohibition wouldn’t hurt Australia any,” adds Mr Blythe. He says there is too much racing, and the need of population is asserted. Not all of Mr Blythe’s utterances are condemnatory. Here are words of praise: “The Australians are a fine, upstanding, sturdy, intelligent and likeable people. Australia sent over a bunch of the best fighting men the world ever saw. Australia’s deepest concern is not to flout and criticise and deride the United States, as often seems to be the case, but to cultivate the closest and most harmonious relations with us, and to get and maintain us as their powerful friend.” The visit of the United States Fleet was a good thing for both countries, continues the tourist. He refers to Australia’s great resources, and closes with this paragraph: “If there ever was a country crying in the wilderness for a real leader, Australia is that land.” MINE-RESCUE CONTEST. The Fifth International First-Aid and Mine-Rescue Contest will be held in San Francisco during the first week of September, 1926, under the direction of the United States Bureau of Mines, Department of Commerce. The date and place of the contest, which is open to all mines, quarrymen and workers in metallurgical plants and the petroleum and natural gas industries, has been approved by the Secretary of Commerce, following an invitation received from the Society of Safety Engineers of California. The city of San Francisco has expressed its interest in the event by donating the use of the Civic Auditorium for the First-Aid Contest. Th? University of California has made available the use of the Greek Theatre for the Mine-Rescue Contest. The international first-aid and minerescue contests are held annually under the direction of the Bureau of Mines, with the co-operation of the American National Red Cross, the National Safety Council, and various mine operators’ associations and miners’ organisations, with the object of furthering the work of training miners in first-aid and mine-rescue, methods, and the consequent advancement of the cause of safety among the million miners of the United States. The first-aid and mine-rescue contests will be for international championships, and international contest cups, medals and prizes will be awarded to the winners. Proficiency of contesting teams will be determined in accordance with Bureau of Mines’ standards by judges thoroughly familiar with firstaid and mine-rescue work. A PLEASING BRITISHER. Gerald Campbell, British Consulate-Gen-eral at San Francisco, is winning the reputation of being “a regular fellow,” the merit of honour in an untitled democracy. He talks well, and appears before the clubs of California to speak on English-American relations. Addressing the Commonwealth Club of California, he said: “Realisation of England’s problems may be difficult, but I do not believe that sympathy is. We have been, and still are, going through what begins with a strongly accented ‘h’ and ends with a bunch of double Ts.’ The average Britisher is never so surprised as when, after he has been talking discouragingly about himself, some hearer is so unintelligent as to believe what he says. Every engine has to have its exhaust, and it has been the policy of our Government to let anybody blow off steam, all he wants to. After spending 20 years in Tendon, one ambassador declared that the British are the hardest people to understand. Some say the British are good for nothing, except to become the ancestors of Americans and colonials. We are paying our way, having maintained our credit. We are forming new enterprises—and even making new capital. We rfiust restore the wealth that was destroyed in the same manner in which it was accumulated —by work and thrift. We do not want booms—we just want to stay on the level.”