Chapter SIX

Therefore, whenever a true American and a true Briton get together, let them hold an international symposium of their own. If it were not for the unfortunate interposition of the Atlantic Ocean, this interview would be extended, with proportional profit, to the greatest symposium the world has ever seen. Meanwhile, we will make shift with a company of two.

The following counsel is respectfully offered to the participants in the debate.

Let the Briton remember:--

1. Remember you are talking to a _friend_.

2. Remember you are talking to a man who regards his nation as
the greatest nation in the world. He will probably tell you
this.

3. Remember you are talking to a man whose country has made an
enormous contribution to your cause in men, material, and
money, besides putting up with a good deal of inconvenience
and irksome supervision at your hands. Remember, too, that
your own country has made little or no acknowledgement of
its indebtedness in this matter.

4. Remember you are talking to a man who believes in
"publicity," and who believes further, that if you do not
advertise the fact, you cannot possibly be in possession of
"the goods." So for any sake open up a little, and tell him
all you can about what the British Nation is doing to-day
for Humanity and Civilization--in other words, for America.

5. Remember this man is not so impervious to criticism as you
are. Don't over-criticize his apparent attitude to the War.
Remember you are talking to a man whose patience under such
outrages as the sinking of the _Lusitania_ has been strained
to the uttermost; so don't ask him whether he is too proud
to fight, or he may offer you convincing proof to the
contrary.

6. Remember you are talking to a man whose business has been
considerably interfered with by the stringency of the Allied
blockade. So don't invite him to wax enthusiastic over the
vigilance of the British Navy or the promptness of the
Censor in putting the mails through.

7. And do try to disabuse the man's mind of the preposterous,
Germany-fostered notion that your country regards this war
merely as a vehicle for commercial aggrandizement, or that
the British Foreign Office proposes to maintain the Black
List and other bugbears after the War. It seems absurd that
you should have to give such an assurance, but doubts upon
the subject certainly exist in certain quarters in America
to-day.

Let the American remember:

1. Remember you are talking to a _friend_.

2. Remember you are talking to a man who regards his nation as
the greatest in the world. He will not tell you this,
because he takes it for granted that you know already.

3. Remember you are talking to a man who is a member of a
traditionally reticent and unexpansive race; who says about
one third of what he feels; who is obsessed by a mania for
understating his country's case, exaggerating its
weaknesses, and belittling its efforts; who is secretly shy,
so covers up his shyness with a cloak of aggressiveness
which is offensive to those who are not prepared for it.
Remember that this attitude is not specially assumed for
_you_: as often as not the man employs it toward his own
wife, who rather enjoys it, because she regards it as a
symptom of affection.

4. Remember you are talking to a man who is fighting for his
life. To-day his face is turned toward Central Europe, and
his back to the United States. Do not expect him to display
an intimate or sympathetic understanding of America's true
attitude to the War. He is conducting the War according to
his lights, and is prepared to abide by the consequences of
what he does. So he is apt to be resentful of criticism.
Bear with him, for he is having a tough time of it.

5. Enemy propaganda to the contrary, remember that this man is
not a hypocrite. He is occasionally stupid; he is at times
obstinate; he is frequently high-handed; and often he would
rather be misunderstood than explain. But he is neither
tyrannical nor corrupt. He went into this War because he
felt it his duty to do so, and not because he coveted any
Teutonic vineyard.

6. Remember that your nation has done a great deal for this
man's nation during the War. Tell him all about it: it will
interest him, _because he did not know_.