Evening star., 1934-09-16

cellently eugenic tradition that has
recruited so many charming society
hostesses.
Well, all that might be worse. 1t is
possible, anyhow, to like as well as
admire country that so luckily grasps
the substance instead of the shadow,
that prefers the democracy of titled
grocers to the inverted pomposity Of
no titles at all.
And now what about that peculiar
and mystifyingly English quality that
foreigners have sometimes been known
to call ''perf1dious"? It comprises, to
a cynical eye, the pacifism of country
that owns most Of the world worth
having, and is now quite content to
let well enough alone. England, IT ap-
years, magnanimously agrees not to
ask for more, just as she is quite salts
fed that international disarmament
should begin with the weapons she
herself has most to fear from-such as
submarines and airplanes. That her
own particular pets-cruisers and bat
tleships-could ever be regarded by a
foreigner as anything but purely de-
fensive is incredible to the average
Englishman.
None Copying England Today.
Yet the lofty assumption that Eng
land is always in class by herself is
not conscious hypocrisy or perf1dy: it
is something far more naive and child
like. The Englishman really does, and
with much excuse, regard the world as
some exterior and troubled disar-
rangement that would be tremendously
improved if every one Immediately
played the game" according to the
rules which he imagines to be his own.
1t Is piece of advice he has constantly
given, and during the nineteenth CEN
tury it was very largely taken, with the
result that English liberalism and Eng
lish democracy were among his most
important invisible exports. Today,
however, nobody Is copying England,
and though England Is a little panied
about it, she is still magnificently GER
tain that she is right.
And that Is why like her. Be-
cause, alone of all the countries of
the world, she is no nearer following
the tumultuous land perhaps in the
end successfully experiments of Rus
sia and Italy than she was 10 years
ago. Because her policy of gradual
ness, of small concessions, of letting
thousands of people say what they
like at street corners, while a few
reliable but unadventurous pilots take
turns at the helm in Whitehall, will
probably with any luck) continue to
save her from major catastrophe. All
this may not be very splendid, but it
will be averagely decent and endur-
able, and it will suit the majority of
her citizens.
The world, indeed, is plagued now
adays with people who are anxious to
make bold strokes and cut Gordian
knots and whose activities usually
make for the greatest happiness of
the smaller number-that number be-
ing, in most cases, number one. Eng
land does not care about this sort
Of thing. She still insists that any
man who wants to reform her must
first Of all satisfy the electors Of Lit
tie Middleton that ne has the right
views about the local sewage scheme.
Represents Older World.
You see what I mean? England
represents an older world, not this
new and strident growth that is
chivvying Jews in Germany, demolish-
ing churches in Russia and bombing
Chinese in Jehol. Most of what Eng
land still processes to believe in is old
and questionable. She will
absorb a good deal Of both
Fascism and Communism, but only in
her own way, at her own time and
with her own majestic reluctance.
AS for her peoples affection for
her, it is one of her singular charms
that she does not demand it from
them. They are not compelled to
wear a badge or salute a flag or join
an army, and even the habit of stand
ing to attention during the first four
bars of God Save the King" is only
West End etiquette-the loyal citizens
Of Bradford and Wolverhampton
would feel embarrassed by it.
Not so long ago a fairly well-known
received a visit from a
fairly well-known German. The Ger
man said that it was proposed in
his country to begin a movement for
the adoption Of the English custom of
holiday week ends, so he would like
some information as to how week
ends were organized. The English
man was puzzled. I'VE don't organize
them at all" he could only say. I'VE
just have them" Perhaps the aver
age Englishman's affection for El-g-
land is like that. She doesn't organ
lze It; she just has 1t. Sometimes 1t
flames up spontaneously, as it did
over "Cavalcade," but for the most
part 1t is just a calm, comfortable,
good hunq.