Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-02-21
Appalling Crisis Rising Before
Britain in Old Coal Question

Continued from First Page.)
which always accompanied the wait
ing hours before the fighting began.
There is, too, a pretty clear appre-
citation of the fact that national safety
may well turn on the outcome of the
new trial. Men are not thinking so
much in terms of years and the re-
1noter future as in those of the days
of the great rush" The horizon is
filled with this single enormous cloud,
behind which all is hidden.
1t is true. too, that as a consequence
Of this preoccupatio ton over domestic
problems England is nightly uncon-
cerned as to foreign questions 1t has
taken Locarno at its face value, il
deliberately refuses to consider with
any degree of attention any foreign
issue. l shall write next week about
the British view of foreign and of
European matters, but at the mo-
ment it seems worth while to note
that neither America nor the CONT
nent Of Europe much interests John
Bull.
United States Is Unpopular.
One can say with complete accuracy
that not in many years, perhaps not
Ill a generation. save during the pc
1'iod of our neutrality during the
World War, has the United States
been as unpopular in England as al
Inc present moment. 1t is not that
the dislike of the nation is expressed
i'll hostility to the individual. The
American, particularly If he is known
1!ere, Is just as sure of a pleasant vel
come and of courteous treatment.
But Uncle Sam is not only disliked
cordially, but one must recognize that
he is felt to be a good deal Of a Shy
lock and not a little of a hy.oocrite
1t is no eXaggeration to say that the
question Of the inter-allied debts has
poisoned Angio-American feelings for
long time to come, and the conse
Guences are still mounting. We are
felt to have let Europe, and particu.
larly Britain, down, to have drawn
vast prosperity from the war and, in
Inc presence of the desperate plight of
those who fought on our side of the
firing lines. to have taken a totally
selfish course. The recent furry over
rubber excited fairly general British
satisfaction because it was felt that
Tor once Britain had scored
The average Englishman, to an ex-
aggerated degree, ascribes present diff.
flculties to the insistence on our part
upon what to him seem huge pay.
ments on account of the debt The
recent Anglo-Italian debt settlement
has served to explode the last British
hope that Britain can collect from her
debtors, Germany included, anything
like enough to meet American de-
mands; the disappointment has been
real, but the comments are all such as
to disclose a combination of grim as.
sent and unconcealed satisfaction that
at least John Bull will escape the in
dictment found against Uncle Sam
the indictment Of Shylock.
United States Structure Studied.
But it is, of course, easy to exag
gerate the extent of this unmistakable
dislike and resentment of America. In
reality John Bull is facing his great
crisis with pretty complete self-ab-
sorption. And it is true that, while
criticism is general, there is nota BILE
growing appreciation of the necessity
of taking account of American meth
DDS of organization in industry and of
American handling of the difficult re-
lations between labor and capital.
Even newspapers like the Morning
Post, which has little affection for the
United States, urge British labor lead
ers to examine the attitude and pol
icy Of American workingmen rather
than to turn to those of Russia.
For the American. there must be
new and for the new few months very
nal importance in British affa irS