THE WOODEN SPOON

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 34, 10 February 1937, Page 6

THE WOODEN SPOON

'I'IIE reference to the wooden spoon in respect to England’s position as an hospitable country in the Empire may not be fully understood. It implies the last word. The man who passed for his degree in the Cambridge University with the lowest marks was, on the day that the Senate conferred the degrees of the University, presented with a large wooden spoon.

There can be no doubt that the English people arc the slowest to accept the stranger within the gate; consequently the unattached resident from the Dominions who goes home, armed with a sheaf of letters of introduction, finds that they arc in large measure waste paper, and he soon learns to be chary in presenting them.

English people resident in England are not as friendly as their compatriots resident abroad, but there is reason for this. In the first place, England is a crowdeel country, and life being what it is, the average man has to be much more selective than in countries where the community of interest with one’s fellows is limited, and the number of persons with whom one has much in common is small. When, however, an Englishman makes a friend he makes one for life; it is a bond which goes deep into his being. Friendships made in countries where there is a scarcity of population are apt to be based not so much upon community of interest as upon necessities of association. It is said of the American people that in the matter of friendship they are quick on the uptake but it does not develop. It is because Englishmen expect so much of their friendships that they arc slow to make a move to the casual acquaintance. Further, in older countries a man’s associations are of long standing and it is difficult for him to realise that there are those in the community who have not. similar long-standing tics. It is possible that it is this lack of understanding which leads the average visitor to England to regard the English people as socially bleak. It is indicative of progress, however, to find the stately London Tinies handing the wooden spoon to the United Kingdom in the matter of hospitality, and expressing the hope that during the Coronation Year, at least, the people of the Homeland will merit that distinction a little less.