A Straight Deal; Or, The Ancient GrudgeWister, Owen
History
A Straight Deal; Or, The Ancient Grudge
Wister, Owen
Great Britain -- Relations -- United States; United States -- Relations -- Great Britain
“1861? Is that also ancient? Perhaps--but very bitter in the memory of
many of us now living. The Alabama. The Confederate Commissioners
(I know you will say we were wrong there--and so we may have been
technically--but John Bull bullied us into compliance when our hands
were tied). Lincoln told his Cabinet ‘one war at a time, Gentlemen’ and
submitted....
“In 1898 we were a strong and powerful nation and a dangerous enemy
to provoke. England recognized the fact and acted accordingly. England
entered the present war to protect small nations! Heaven save the mark!
You surely read your history. Pray tell me something of England’s policy
in South Africa, India, the Soudan, Persia, Abyssinia, Ireland, Egypt.
The lost provinces of Denmark. The United States when she was young and
helpless. And thus, almost to--infinitum.
“Do you not know that the foundations of ninety per cent of the great
British fortunes came from the loot of India? upheld and fostered by the
great and unscrupulous East India Company?
“Come down to later times: to-day for instance. Here in California...
I meet and associate with hundreds of Britishers. Are they American
citizens? I had almost said, ‘No, not one.’ Sneering and contemptuous
of America and American institutions. Continually finding fault with our
government and our people. Comparing these things with England, always
to our disadvantage......
“Now do you wonder we do not like England? Am I pro-German? I should
laugh and so would you if you knew me.”
To this correspondent I did not reply that I wished I knew him--which
I do--that, even as he, so I had frequently been galled by the rudeness
and the patronizing of various specimens, high and low, of the English
race. But something I did reply, to the effect that I asked nobody to
consider England flawless, or any nation a charitable institution, but
merely to be fair, and to consider a cordial understanding between
us greatly to our future advantage. To this he answered, in part, as
follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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