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_.