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.
Pages:
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50