Baxter Says Rise of Nazis and Japan Changes Anglo-American Relations

With the same loud enthusiasm that used to shake the walls of Harvard 1, James Phinney Baxter 3d, President of Williams and former professor of American History, opened a series of three lectures on "Anglo-American Relations Since the Civil War" in the New Lecture Hall last evening.

Speaking on "The Aftermath of the Civil War," President Baxter began by emphasizing that the background for present relations between the two countries has changed recently from what it had been after 1865. "Germany and Japan have achieved a position such as has been enjoyed by no nation since the time of Napoleon," he said, "and therefore we must realize that the international situation has changed radically from the conditions existent during the period to be covered by my first two lectures."

"Tonight I will deal with that great trench of hate dug between the two powers during the Civil War and the eventual settlement of differences in the following period until 1871."

Controversies over neutral rights and the mutual recrimination by newspapers in both countries were the two principal sources of ill feeling, he said. "Seward with an eye on the Irish vote and an ignorance of international law was apt to overplay his hand and mingle well founded protests at British violations with unjustified demands for concessions." Both nations realized that their actions would establish precedents for later diplomacy.