ENGLAND IN EUROPE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 20, 8 September 1911, Page 2

ENGLAND IN EUROPE.

A travelling correspondent of tlic ‘J)aily Mai!” lias come home from Europe deeply impressed with the ex.ent of English influence on the Continent. “Whenever I hear people saying that England's day, is over I ask them whether they travel much abroad. I find, as a rule, that they hr,re never heon outside their own country. 11 they had, they would revise their opinion. They would discover that the influence of England is stronger in Europe than it has over been before. 1 ' Ho does not touch on political influence, hut lias a good deal that is highly interesting to say about the spread of the English language and English customs. ■- English is everywhere being learned as part of the necessary equipment, of educated men and women. One often meets Germans and Russians and Austrians and Swedes who speak English fluently and correctly without ever having been in England. English games are making a rapid conquest of the Continent, ■'netball and tennis are played in nany parte of Europe, and golf is gaining ground. Bridge is a popular .■arc] game. Foreign cavalry officers long to spend a winter in England for ’.Hinting, and when they have done so tlicy talk of it with enthusiasm for long afterwards. England sets more social fashions than any other country. Five o’clock tea and the custom of dressing for dinner have heon widely adopted.. One result of this adoption of English habits is the frequency with which one sees in European crowds “the English type of man.” Whereas not many years ago an Englishman could he picked out at once among a crowd of young Frenchmen or Germans or Italians, nowadays, at first glance, they all look very much alike. Most interesting of all is the preference some Germans have for the English style of education. Englishmen for years past have been told by experts to model their educational system on Germany’s, and some Britons at a Continental lintel pointed this out. when throe German couples said in conversation that they meant to send their sons to English schools. The Gormans explained their 'reasons. “Our schools,” they said, “stuff boys with learning which they soon forgot; overstrain them, leave them no freedom, teach them to rely upon authority and the time-table. We want our sons to learn to he men, to rely upon themselves, to he able to act in emergencies upon their own judgment. We want character training rather than mind-stuffing. That wo can get in England. Therefore our sons shall go there.” It would lie interesting to know whether in the light of the events of the past few weeks these good people are oh the same mind today.