NOTES.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 15115, 28 December 1921, Page 4

NOTES.

A resident of Hawke’s Bay, who has just returned from a visit to the United States, was asked for his impressions. “Well, as regards the ■colonies,” be answered, “I found a very friendly feeling. I never had to fstick up’ for New Zealand, Australia or Canada. With England it was a different matter; from my observation, I should say that a large percentage of Americans dislike England, though they do not extend this ■attitude to inidviduals from the Old Country. Many Americans seem to have a vague idea that'the Dominions want independence, and they have very little comprehension of Dominion

status. I was rather amused when someone asked me if I thought New Zealand would ever get her ‘freedom.’ “The lack of geographic knowledge among the general run of people is also extraordinary. It is common belief that New Zealand is just off the coast of Australia, if not actually part of the Commonwealth, and a few people have never heard of us at all. Among educated and- well-informed people I found an idea that the New Zealanders exist under an advanced form of Socialism, unhampered by the cares that beset the rest of humanity. In some cases our soldiers have put New Zealand on the map; and our boys and the Australians 'apparently earned us a good reputation wherever they went. Any Americans I met who had run across them on ‘the other side’ spoke of them in friendly and admiring terms.”