LONDON LETTER
155
came as a surprise. But our new alliance has simply brought out the
immense amount of anti-American feeling that exists in the ordinary low–
brow middle class. English cultural feelings towards America are compli–
cated but can be defined fairly accurately.
In
the middle class,.the people
who are
not
anti-American are the declassed technician type (people like
radio engineers) and the younger intelligentsia. Up till about 1930 nearly
all "cultivated" people loathed the U.S.A., which was regarded as the vul–
gariser of England and Europe. The disappearance of this attitude was
probably connected with the fall of Latin and Greek from their dominant
position as school subjects. The younger intellectuals have no objection
to the American language and tend to have a masochistic attitude towards
the U.S.A., which they believe to be richer and more powerful than Britain.
Of course it is exactly this that excites the jealousy of the ordinary patri–
otic middle class. I know people who automatically switch off the radio
as soon as any American news comes on, and the most banal English film
will always get middle-class support because "it's such a relief to get away
from those American voices." Americans are supposed to be boastful,
had-mannered and worshippers of money, and are also suspected of plot–
ting to inherit the British Empire. There is also business jealousy, which
is
very strong in the trades which have been hit by the Lease-Lend agree–
ment. The working-class attitude is quite different. English .working-class
people nearly always dislike Americans when in actual contact with them,
hut they have no preconceived cultural hostility. In the big towns they
are being more and more Americanised in speech through the medium of
the cinema.
It is uncertain whether English xenophobia is being broken down by
the presence in England of large numbers of foreigners. I think it is, but
plenty of people disagree with me. There is no doubt that in the summer
of 1940 working-class suspicion of foreigners helped to make possible the
internment of the refugees. At the time I talked with countless people,
and except for Left intellectuals I could find no one who saw anything
wrong in it. The blimps were after the refugees because they were largely
Socialists, and the working-class line was "what did they want to come
here for?" Underlying this, a hangover from an earlier period, was a
resentment against these foreigners who were supposedly taking English–
men's jobs. In the years before the war it was largely Trade Union opposi–
tion that prevented a big influx of German Jewish refugees. Of late feel–
ings have grown more friendly, partly because there is no longer a scram·
hle for jobs, but partly also, I think, owing to personal contacts. The
foreign troops who are quartered here in large numbers seem to get on
unexpectedly well with the population, the Poles in particular being a
great success with the girls. On the other hand there is a certain amount
of anti-semitism. One is constantly coming on pockets of it, not violent
but pronounced enough to be disquieting. The Jews are supposed to dodge
military service, to be the worst offenders on the Black Market, etc., etc.
