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PARTISAN REVIEW
I have heard this kind of talk even from country people who had probably
never seen a Jew in their lives. But no one wants actually to
do
anything
to the Jews, and the idea that the Jews are responsible for the war never
seems to have caught on with the big public, in spite of the efforts of the
German radio.
3. Defeatism and German Propaganda.
Appeasement of the Chamberlain type is not "dead," as the news–
papers are constantly assuring us, but is lying very low. But there exists
another school of rightwing defeatism which can be conveniently studied
in the weekly paper
Truth. Truth
has had a curious history and is a
distinctly influential paper. At one time it was a non-political factual
paper specialising in a genteel form of muckraking (exposure of patent
medicine frauds, etc.), and was taken in as a matter of course in every
club
and regimental mess throughout the Empire. So far as I know it still has
the same circulation, but latterly it has taken a definite political and eco–
nomic line and become a stronghold of the worst kind of rightwing Tory·
ism. Sir Ernest Benn, for instance, writes in it every week.
It
is not only
anti-Labour, but in a discreet way anti-Churchill, anti-Russian and, more
markedly, anti-American.
It
opposed the exchange of naval bases for
American destroyers, the only other opposers being the Blackshirts and
Communists. The strategy it advocates is to avoid entangling alliances,
keep out of Europe and concentrate ·on self-defence on sea and in the air.
The obvious logic of this is to make a compromise peace at the earliest
possible moment. The quantity of advertisements for banks and insurance
companies which
Truth
contains shows how well it is thought of in those
quarters, and recently questions in Parliament brought out the fact that it
is partly owned by the Conservative Party machine.
Leftwing defeatism is quite different and much more interesting. One
or two of the minor political parties (for instance the British Anarchists,
who followed up the German invasion of Russia with a terrific and very
able anti-Soviet pamphlet,
The Truth about Russia)
follow a line which
by implication is "revolutionary defeatist." The I.L.P. is preaching what
amounts to a watered version of the "Ten Propositions" set forth in the
Partisan Review,
but in very indefinite terms, never clearly stating whether
or not it "supports" the war. But the really interesting development is
the increasing overlap between Fascism and pacifism, both of which over–
lap to some extent with "left" extremism. The attitude of the very young
is more significant than that of the
New Statesman
pinks who war-mon·
gered between 1935 and 1939 and then sulked when the war started. So
far as I know, the greater part of the very young intelligentsia are anti·
war-this doesn't stop them from serving in the armed forces, of course–
don't believe in any "defence of democracy," are inclined to prefer Ger·
many to Britain, and don't feel the horror of Fascism that we who are
somewhat older feel. The entry of Russia into the war didn't alter this,
though most of these people pay lip-service to Russia. With the out-and-
