Getting Together by Ian Hay
page 13 of 32 (40%)
page 13 of 32 (40%)
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particularly sensitive in that respect."
"Very well," replies the American. "Now, we want to put this right, don't we?" "We do," replies the other, with quite un-British enthusiasm. "No one who has spent any time as a visitor to this country could help----" "Why then, tell me," interpolates the other, "what is at the back of your country's present resentful attitude toward America?" The Briton ponders. "Didn't someone once say," he replies at last, "that 'he that is not for us is against us?' That seems to sum up the situation. We on our side are engaged in a life-and-death struggle for the freedom of the world. We know that you are not against us; still, considering the sacredness of our cause, and the monstrous means by which the Boche is seeking to further his, we feel that you have not stood for us so out and out as you might. Only the other day your Government announced that in their opinion it was time that both sides stated plainly what they were fighting for! Now----" The other checks him. "Don't you go mixing up the officially neutral American Government," he says, "with the American people, or the American people with the inhabitants of America. In many districts of America, the balance of power lies with people who have only recently entered the country, and who have not yet become absorbed into the American people. As for our |
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