WAR WITH AMERICA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 92, 18 April 1929, Page 12

WAR WITH AMERICA

A VISITOR’S OPINION “IT IS INCONCEIVABLE.” The firm opinion Ih.it war between the United States and Great Britain was inconceivable was expressed by Mr Donald McKin on, for son.'? time Ai s’ralian trade r [,r«-;s« : tai.ivo in the USA., when speaking at a luncheon tendered to him last week by the Wei- i Kington branch of the English-speaking I Union. In introducing the speaker. Mr A. i L. Hunt, who presided, said that there had been a lot of irritating statements in the newspapers lately about the relations between America and Great Britain. Personally, he could hardly hold himself in when he read some of the articles, which were apparently written with the sole object of stirring the minds of the people against America. ’They had, for instance, the suggestion that America was anxious to! i claim the whole of Antarctica. That I was rubbish. He hoped Mr McKinnon would be. able to assure them that the articles which had boon written did not express the minds of the American people. Prejudice Against U.S.A. Mr McKinnon said there was a good deal of prejudice against America in Australia, but he did not tTiink it was as great as in New Zcat':::«l. He I had lived for eighteen months in the I United States, and had mixed with all sections of the people, but he had never received anything but courtesy. His experience was that the American ' people held New Zealand and Australia in the highest regard, and the ' same applied to the British Empire as a whole. The American people gener-

ally took a pride in the rapid development which was going on in Australia and New Zealand. It was a fact that one heard more ill-feeling among British people about America thhan one found among American people about Great Britain. The King’s illness had been far more sympathetically referred to by the reputable American newspapers than by the newspapers of Australia and New Zealand. America held the highest possible opinion of tlie manner in which Great Britain had come out of the war, and the manner in which she had settled her many dificulties, notably tlie Egyptian and Trish questions There were always people in every country who were willing to stir up trouble, and it was a matter of deep regret to him that so noted a preacher as the Rev. R. .T. Campbell should make the statement that war between America and Great Britain was not inconceivable. “I can tell you that war won’t come,” said Mr McKinnon. ‘ 4 Even if Groat Britain wanted war America would not fight, for America knows that a war would mean the end of the British people. The Americans Irate war. They had amongst themselves the biggest war prior to the Great War that the world hag known, and they lost over a million of their own people. AH the ccrcion in the world will not bring them into war with Great Britain. It is inconceivable. I don’t believe for a moment that Britain would ever go to war with America. Wo still have the experiences of the Great War before us, and the influence of women to-day is sufficiently strong to ensure that there would not be another. I hope the Eng-lish-speaking Union will not be discouraged by these little bickerings.” One Side of Story. Proposing a vote of thanks to the speaker, Sir Frederick Chapman said he had received considerable enlightenment from what he had heard from