154
PARTISAN REVIEW
time. They call the Germans Jerries, which may have a mildly obscene
meaning but is not unfriendly. All the blame for everything is placed on
Hitler, even more than on the Kaiser during the last war. After an air
raid one often used to hear people say "He .was over again last night"–
"he" being Hitler. The Italians are generally called Eyeties, which is less
offensive than Wops, and there is no popular feeling against them what·
ever, nor against the Japanese as yet. To judge from photos
in
the news–
papers, the land girls are quite ready to get off with Italian prisoners
working on the farms. As to the smaller nations who are supposed to
be
at war with us, no one remembers which is which. The women who a year
ago were busy knitting stockings for the Finns are now busy knitting
them for the Russians, but there is no ill feeling. The chief impression
one derives from all this chaos of opinions is how little the lack of a
positive war aim, or even of any definite mental picture of the enemy,
matters to people who are at any rate at one in not wanting to be governed
by foreigners.
2.
Our
Allies.
Whatever may be happening among the higher-ups, the effect of the
Russian alliance has been a tremendous net increase of pro-Russian senti–
ment. It is impossible. to discuss the war with ordinary working-class and
middle-class people without being struck by this. But the enthusiasm that
ordinary people feel for Russia is not coupled with the faintest interest in
the Russian political system. All that has happened is that Russia has
become respectable. An enormous hammer and sickle flag flies daily over
Selfridge's, the biggest shop in London. The Communists have not caused
so much friction as I expected. They have been tactful in their posters and
public pronouncements, and have gone to unheard-of lengths in support–
ing Churchill. But though they may have gained in numbers as a result
of the Russian alliance, they do not seem to have gained in political influ–
ence. To a surprising extent ordinary people fail to grasp that there is any
connection between Moscqw and the Communist party, or even that Com·
munist policy has changed as a result of Russia's entry into the war. Every·
one is delighted that the Germans have failed to take Moscow, but no one
sees in this any reason for paying any attention to what Palme Dutt and
Co. may say. In practice this attitude is sensible, but at the bottom of it
there lies a profound lack of interest in doctrinaire politics. The ban has
not been taken off the
Daily
Worker.
Immediately after it was suppressed
it reappeared as a factory sheet which was illegally printed, but was
winked at. Now, under the title of "the
British Worker,"
it is sold on the
streets without interference. But it has ceased to be a daily and has lost
most of its circulation. In the more important parts of the press the
Communist influence has not been regained.
There is no corresponding increase in pro-American sentiment-the
contrary, if anything. It is true that the entry of Japan and America into
the war was expected by everyone, whereas the German invasion of Russia
