The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1918-07-12
AMITY or ARGLO-SASONS
WELDED BY WAR PERIL
Sharing of Dangers Cements Friend
ship and Points to New Epoch.
(By Lieut.. Col. Repingtop,)

i
| London, July IL do no. now
what particular words or acts of our
American friends may have most i'm
| pressed the general public of the
British Empire, but the episode
which most impressed me was my
first sight of an American sentry on
duty in East France. He was a
tall fellow of the marines. standing
| guard over one of the roads leading
to General Pershing's headquarters,
and he did his work very thoroly, al
lowing no one to pass until all his
papers were scrutinized and all
forpaeStios were performed.
TIE GREATEST MISFORTUNE.
While he was engaged on this
duty stood and looked at him and
tried to fathom all his presence
meant. Inevitably there flashed
thru my mind all the truly terrible
story of our quarrel with the Ameri-
can colonies from 1851 to 1875, JEFF
ferson's epoch, his making of the
draft of the Declaration of Independ-
ence, the story of the events of the
war of 1912 and all the vexations,
quarrels and MISUNDERSTANDING
which have occurred between us and
America within the recollection of
men now living.
The American Declaration of Inde-
pendence is the most terrible indict-
ment of English statesmanship that
ever has been written, and l do not
know that we should be anxious to
commemorate it except in sackcloth
and ashes. The division of the Anglo
Saxon race by that great cleavage
regard as .ne greatest misfortune
that has happened to the modern
world and as the true parent of all
the great wars and upheavals we
have lived thru in our days.
1t was not the loss of citizens and
territory that mattered so much,
grievous tho 1t was. l CHANGED, one
day, to total up the territory which
ge had gained in arms during the
twenty-five years of my soldering,
and found 1t equaled in area the ter
fitory of the United States. 1t was
the gift of our old army to the Brit
ish working classes and scarcely any
one has noticed it or has even given
us thank you for it. The loss of
territory was made good, and so was
the loss of citizens, numerically con-
sidered. But the real trouble caused
by the American Revolution was the
division of the Anglo-Saxon race,
then the English-speaking people,
into two great parts, with the in
evitable loss of the moral and ma
terial power and authority that &C
companied such division.
SEES GREAT NEW EPOCH.
Together we were capable of es-
tablishing thruout the world prin-
ciples of Government which were,
despite many fallings from grace,
deeply implanted in the breasts of
our fellow citizens. Singly, we were
not SO capable, for by 1914 we Eng
lish were not in position to con-
front another 1880, while America,
while she could supply the force of
argument, was without the argu-
ment of force which, in the last
resort, must be applied to all evil
doers.
1t came, as great ideal in many
generous minds, that the reunion of
the English speaking people, in one
form or another, had become a neces-
sity for the good government of the
world, and that tall American ma
rine seemed to me the forerunner of
great new epoch.
We know we'll that the interven-
tion of America in this war was not
for the sake of our beautiful Eng
lish eyes but for the sake of justice
and public order first, and second, to
repay the great debt America owed
to France. We are under no illu-
sions on this subject. We, here, re-
gard Americans, and for many years
have regarded them, as our own kith |
and kin; but we know we'll that thru
out America asa whole we were not
so regarded by Americans, and his
tory is there to explain the reason.
COMRADES IN GREAT CAUSE.
But, at the long last, we have
found ourselves automatically align
ed on the same side in the greatest
of all wars for the greatest of all |
causes. We only now are beginning
to realize that the mutual knowl-
edge, and hope l may say, the mu-
tual esteem which already has been
borne of the association of British
and American comrades in arms and
by the cooperation of countless citi-