Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, DEC. 30, 1914. AMERICA AND THE WAR.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 30 December 1914, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, DEC. 30, 1914. AMERICA AND THE WAR.

In the earlier stages of the war (says the ''Auckland Star") the impression seems to havo gained ground that

public feeling in the United, States was by no means well-disposed toward England and her Allies. This idea | was very largely due to the strenuous efforts made by the German official press to represent the Americans as sympathetically inclined to Germany; and this task was rendered comparatively easy by the political and journalistic influence ot the Germans in America. It is natural that the manv

'millions of Germans resident in the United States should do what they can for the Fatherland by influencing American public sentiment in .its favour; and their efforts in this direction imve been actively promoted by Wolff's Bureau, by Dr. Haniann, the

notorious "tuner" of the German press, and by Count Bernstorri. the German Ambassador at "Washington, who has surpassed even tho best German records by the ingenuity and comprehensiveness* of his fictions. Apart from German hostility in the United States, England has' also to reckon with the anti-British sentiment which has been carefully cultivated for many years by frantic Aurflophobes of W. R. Hearst's school. Everyone, of Hearst's many newspapers has been working assiduously on the traditional and historical American prejudices against England; and there is no doubt that among the great masses of the American people these forces have exorcised a certain amount of influence. But in spite of all this wo believe that Sir "Wilfred Lanrier has gauged the situation accurately when lie tells us that Auiori-

can public fooling is much moi;e kindly disposed toward England than is generally 'Jwlttved. It is possible that ii' there had been no war this year the, which itad been arranged u> commemorate a century of peaoo between England and tho lln i tod Stales would have helped to initiate much more friendly and intimate relaAions between England and the Americans than heretofore. Unfortunately there is no doubt that when t-lin war began tho American (Vmgrovs allowed itself to be carried away by a carefully organised outbreak of pro-German feeling; and the resolution by which it deeded to postpone, all action in regard to the peace celebrations for the time being was introduced by several violently atiti-Briu-di speeches. However, a, great deal has happened since August. Tho Americans have had an opportunity of learning beyond the possibility, of <loulit thai: Germany provoked and* engineered the war, and that England and her Allies are in no way responsible for it. Moreover, the shocking 'outrages and brutalities- perpetrated Iby the Germans in Belgium and l Franco hare, naturally excited strong ! indignation in America; and the public anger at these atrocities has been quickened by the knowledge that tho United States aro practically defenceless against invasion, and that if Germany were to defea't England, and woro then to treat tho Monroe Doctrine as "a scrap of paper," the people of America might conceivably experience in their own coastal towns some of the virtues of German "culture," For all these reasons the tide of public opinion in the United States seems definitely to have turned in favour of England. Historical prejudices da.ting hack to tho "War of Independence aro happily dying out, and the efforts of tho German-American element to poison tho public mind against the Allies have- proved futile. We can bo sure, therefore, that when tho time comes for England and America to complete the peace celebrations so unfortunately deferred, tho proceedings will bo mark&d ' by_ ,evon greater unanimity and goodwill than could havo been possible beforo the war l>egan.