LONDON LETTER
323
last year. I am afraid one must
~
·y that the chances are against this. The
reason why the Dunkirk campaj · and the collapse of France impressed
public opinion, and did a gre:..t Jeal of good, was that these things were
happening close at hand. There was the immediate threat of invasion, and
there were the soldiers coming home in hundreds of thousands to tell their
families how they had been let down. This time the thing is happening
far away, in countries that the average person neither knows nor cares
anything about-the ordinary British working man hasn't the faintest
notion that the Suez canal has anything to do with his own standard of
living-and if the troops who got away from Greece have tales to tell they
are telling them in Egypt and Palestine. Also, no one expected the Greek
campaign to be anything but a disaster. Long before any official announce–
ment was made it was known that we had troops in Greece, and I could
find no one of whatever kind who believed that the expedition would be
(
successful; on the other hand, nearly everyone felt that it was our duty to -
intervene. It is generally recognized that as yet, i.e. until we have an
up-to-date army, we can't fight the Germans on the continent of Europe,
but at the same time "we couldn't let the Greeks down.'' The English
people have never been infected with power-worship and don't feel the
futility of this sort of gesture as a continental people probably would. I
can see no sig.n anywhere of any big swing of opinion. In the parlia–
mentary debate on the Greek campaign the attack on the government ·was
led by envious throw·outs like Lloyd George, and instead of being a proper
discussion the debate was easily twisted into a demand for a vote of con–
fidence, which on the whole the government deserves-at any rate it
deserves it in the sense that no alternative government is at present pos·
sible. The repercussions which are probably happening in Australia,
however, may do something towards democratising the conduct of the war.
People here are beginning to say that the next leftward push must come
from America.
It
is suggested, for instance, that Roosevelt might make it
a condition of further help that the British government do something
about India. You are better able than I am to judge whether this is likely.
The air raids continue. To the ordinary people this is the part of the
war that matters, in fact it
is
the war, but their stolidity is surprising.
There was a sidelight on the popular mind which probably did not get
into the American press, and which may interest you, in a recent by-elec–
tion in Birmingham. A dissident Conservative who called himself a
"reprisals candidate" ran against the government's nominee. His claim
was that we should concentrate on bombing German civilians to avenge
what has been done here. Canon Stuart Morris, one of the leading lights
in the Peace Pledge Union, also ran on a pacifist ticket. The respective
slogans of the three candidates were "Bomb Berlin," "Stop the War" and
"Back Churchill.'' The government man got about 15,000 votes and the
other two about 1500 each. The whole poll was probably low, but con–
sidering the times we live in I think these figures are encouraging.
GEORGE ORWELL
