The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-02
ANGLO, AMERICAN GOODNESS.
NOT 4 GOVERNMENT AFFAIR,
mT 4 POPULAR CHILL.
Cf business Prosperity and Dis
Ike Of business Scandals Diminish Our
Prestige In England New Ambassador
Problem The Presidents Dominance.

has taken place in the last few months n
leginning TO become the subject of public
comment in this country. II should be
,learly understood that this change in no
way affects the official relations of the two
countries. The present Government, no
less than the last, is eager to maintain the
entente as closely as the United States is
willing to make il.
.,s,o is no jealousy in official circles of
the increasingly important role which
america il playing in world politics. On
the contrary, the English foreign policy con-
tinues to he along lines exactly parallel to
the American. The weakening in good
fellowship, so far az il exists. is n change in
popular feeling. IL one seeks the cause it
viii be found partly in n v OF Americas
.tupendous. unbroken prosperity during
tie season of financial depression here and
iarly in the effect of the long series OF
american business scandals, which have
been exploited by the English press to an
extent perhaps never equalled in the public
discussion of the affairs of another country.
he the cause what it may, the fact re-
mains that America and Americans are
regarded by the people of the country with
less respect and regard than two years ago.
This change is giving the Government it,
self some uneasiness and is making the
choice of a successor to Sir Henry Mortimer
Durand as British Ambassador at Washing
ton a matter Of the greatest delicacy and
importance. The question of selecting
sonre one outside Of the diplomatic circle is
much discussed and the Government Is
heing urged to make a choice in the same
manner as Americas selections to the Court
Of ~. James's are made, and above all things
TO send "A man to the United States who
understands Americans and who will be
understood Of them.
One of the best names mentioned within
the service is C.. A. Spring-Rice. now First
Secretary of the British Embassy at st.
Petersburg. He knows Washington, and
better than that Americans would find him
"A man of like passions as they are Lord
Charles Beresford is suggested as one who
would command the personal friendship
Of President Roosevelt, a point which the
Foreign Office regards as one Of the first
essentials in a successful Ambassador.
The Outlook to-day discusses the situa-
ton, including the change in public senti-
Inent in the two countries, in a long article
in which il says:
"Anglo-American friendship cannot pass
from a state of feeling into a policy of action
until the Americans have discarded some
of their DreiudiCes, cut loose from some of
their traditions and gathered more ex-
tended experience OF International politics.
That will take time. The process of emanci-
patton is going on in the American mind,
but at present il has not gone very far.
They scarcely realize even now that they
are launched On a stream of consequences
and tendencies that wherever it may finally
land them cannot but carry them clean
past the old narrow bounds
Hardly r month goes by without some
fresh proof. that the United States is irrevo-
oably committed TO playing an ever larger
share in yoltpolitjk. So long as shat is 40
Anglo-American smity, II not an Anglo
American alliance, il i'm our judgment as
rured. The United States N be a world
Power and nti-British, but while we feel
that the permanent currents of national
interests, sentiment and necessities are
setting full and fair toward an Anglo
American understanding hat shall be
something more than after dinner rhetoric
We quite recognize that on the surface there
seems Just now 10 be a s~lackening of the tide.
There is more than one reason for this.
II is possible that Sir. Henry Mortimer
Durand mas not been able to establish those
happy personal relations with the President
that contributed so largely to the success
OF Lord Pauncefote and Sir Michael Her
bert. If thai be so, the matter-for which
Sir Henry need not be blamed-is one OF
considerable consequence. President Roose-
welt dominates politics in America at this
moment to a degree scarcely exceeded by
President Lincoln during the stress OF the
civil war, and any insufficiency in his rela-
tons with an Ambassador reacts at once
upon the country which that Ambassador
represents. II this, however, Is OF the nature
of superstition, the extraordinary advance
which has been mad by the German En-
bsssy at Washington and the novel continu-
Gus exchanges OF condolences between the
President and the Kaiser are unquestionable
facts, and facts that have already had once
and may have again a direct influence on
the course of international politics.
Moreover, all is not well between the
United States and Japan. Apart from the
difficulty about the school children at San
Francisco the Americans are apprehensive
as TO the future of their in the
Far East, They have lost a good deal OF
their sentimental admiration for japan
and now watch her swift expansion with an
irritated sense of helplessness The reflex
action OF these developments has lain in
the direction of deposing Great Britain from
her position as the first friend and Of gem
Grating not indeed a GOODNESS but a falling
oH in the old intimacy. That any per-
manent harm to British interests is threat
ened we do not for a moment believe. The
falling on, such as it is, is personal and
official and in no way argues among the
mass Of Americans n change In senti-
mont. For that reason it is very far from
being irreparable. Given an Ambassador
of the right type there is no reason why
Anglo-American relations should not In a
few years recover all their former COM
Ileteness.'
The rbseruer, in discussing the question
Of a successor to Sir Henry Mortimer Du-
rand, says from information it has obtained
the Government, contr airy to general ex-
pectation, has decided to fill the vacancy in
the ordinary way. Tn paper understands
that the nomination OF Gerald A. Low
Their, at present British Minister at Tangier,
10 the Enthusiastically at Washington is viz
III - M A. oehan non NidaNna IL