Introduction
In his Memoirs (1954) the Aga Khan Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah (1877-1957) regretted the breakdown of esteem between Englishmen and Indians in the early twentieth century. Novelist W. Somerset Maugham found in this a lesson for the emerging Power of the 1950s, the United States of America: a lesson not to make the same mistake the British Empire made.
IN the world of today the Americans occupy the position which the British so long, and for all their failings not ingloriously, held. Perhaps it would be to their advantage to profit by our example and avoid making the errors that have cost us so dear. The British wanted to be loved and were convinced that they were; the Americans want to be loved too, but are uneasily, distressingly, conscious that they are not.
They find it hard to understand. With their boundless generosity they have poured money into the countries which two disastrous wars have reduced to poverty, and it is natural that they should wish to see it spent as they think fit and not always as the recipients would like to spend it.
Précis
Writing shortly after the Second World War, Somerset Maugham urged the USA to reflect on Indian independence. The Americans, he said, were starting down the same path as the British Empire, hoping to make themselves both loved and respected by funding and shaping Europe’s war-torn nations as Britain had funded and shaped India. (53 / 60 words)
Writing shortly after the Second World War, Somerset Maugham urged the USA to reflect on Indian independence. The Americans, he said, were starting down the same path as the British Empire, hoping to make themselves both loved and respected by funding and shaping Europe’s war-torn nations as Britain had funded and shaped India.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: because, despite, just, not, ought, since, until, whether.
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