Getting Together

Ian Hay

Description

In his breakthrough bestseller, The First Hundred Thousand, author Ian Hay brought humor and wit to a solemn subject in a first-hand account of a soldier's experience in World War I. He employs a similarly light touch in Getting Together, a discussion of the political and cultural relationship between England and the U.S. that unfolds like a pleasant fireside chat between friends.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Military history

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776672790
• Langue: English

Extrait

GETTING TOGETHER
* * *
IAN HAY
 
*
Getting Together First published in 1917 Epub ISBN 978-1-77667-279-0 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77667-280-6 © 2014 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
*
Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Endnotes
Chapter One
*
For several months it has been the pleasant duty of the writer of thefollowing deliverance to travel around the United States, lecturingupon sundry War topics to indulgent American audiences. No one—leastof all a parochial Briton—can engage upon such an enterprise for longwithout beginning to realize and admire the average American's amazinginstinct for public affairs, and the quickness and vitality with whichhe fastens on and investigates every topic of live interest.
Naturally, the overshadowing subject of discussion to-day is the War,and all the appurtenances thereof. The opening question is always thesame. It lies about your path by day in the form of a newspaper man,or about your bed by night in the form of telephone call, and issimply:
"When is the War going to end?"
(One is glad to note that no one ever asks how it is going to end:that seems to be settled.)
The simplest way of answering this question is to inform yourinquisitor that so far as Great Britain is concerned the War has onlyjust begun—began, in fact, on the first of July, 1916; when theBritish Army, equipped at last, after stupendous exertions, for agrand and prolonged offensive, went over the parapet, shoulder toshoulder with the soldiers of France, and captured the hithertoimpregnable chain of fortresses which crowned the ridge overlookingthe Somme Valley, with results now set down in the pages of history.
Having weathered this conversational opening, the stranger fromBritain finds himself, as the days of his sojourn increase in number,swept gently but irresistibly into an ocean of talk—an oceancomplicated by eddies, cross-currents, and sudden shoals—upon thesubject of Anglo-American relations over the War. Here is thesubstance of some of the questions which confront the perplexedwayfarer:—
1. "Do your people at home appreciate the fact that we are thoroughly pro-Ally over here?"
2. "How about that Blockade? What are you opening our mails for—eh?"
3. "Would you welcome American intervention?"
4. "What do you propose to do about the submarine menace?"
5. "You don't really think we are too proud to fight, do you?"
6. "Are you in favour of National Training for Americans?"
7. "Do you expect to win outright, or are both sides going to fight themselves to a standstill?"
And
8. "Why can't you Britishers be a bit kinder in your attitude to us?"
Chapter Two
*
Let us take this welter of interrogation categorically, and endeavourto frame such answers as would occur to the average Briton to-day.
But first of all, let it be remembered that the average Briton ofto-day is not the average Briton of yesterday. Three years ago he wasa prosperous, comfortable, thoroughly insular Philistine. He took aproprietary interest in the British Empire, and paid a munificentsalary to the Army and Navy for looking after it.