io SUNSHINE AND SPORT IN 



seemed that on a British ship we were to be guilty 

 of the discourtesy of singing our own anthem first, 

 and perhaps I made some gesture suggesting 

 interruption, though I contemplated no more than 

 passive resistance, for my neighbour laid a restrain- 

 ing hand on my arm. Next moment I realised that, 

 with something less than their usual independence 

 of Old World forms, our American friends have 

 borrowed from the hymnal of their old allegiance, 

 and to the old tune have set new words breathing 

 the echo of a patriotic disloyalty and invoking a 

 liberty that knows no bounds. Music phrased for 

 the subjects of a king was now coupled with the 

 passionate declaration of sworn freemen. In my 

 ignorance, I had known only the " Star-spangled 

 Banner," and it had not occurred to me that two 

 National Anthems would be required for the fervour 

 of a territory covering less than one-third the area 

 of an Empire that is content with one. Still, the 

 Americans have every right to a dozen if they 

 cannot agree on one, and I have recounted these 

 two unemotional episodes of my chairmanship of 

 the concert merely for the help of others equally 

 innocent of American ways. The excellent charities 

 benefited generously on this occasion, owing in 

 great measure to the liberality of a passenger who 

 anonymously doubled the collection. 



Next day was the end, and, considering our 

 slender resources, the week had passed agreeably. 

 The crossing is nowadays robbed of much of the 

 aloofness which used to invest ocean travel in the 

 old days when I went East, by the Marconi installa- 

 tion, without which no self-respecting liner now 

 seems to consider herself seaworthy. A deckhouse, 



