278
PARTISAN REVIEW
general the big public is offensive-minded and is always pleased when the
government shows by violating international law (eg. Oran, Syria, Mada–
gascar) that it is taking the war seriously. Nevertheless the idea of attack–
ing Spain or Spanish Morocco (much the most hopeful area for a second
front in my opinion) is seldom raised. It is agreed by all observers that
the Army, ie. rank and file and a lot of the junior officers, is exceedingly
browned off, but this does not seem to be the case with the Navy and RAF,
and it is easy to get recruits for the dangerous corps such as the com–
mandos and parachute troops.
An
anonymous pamphlet attacking the
blimpocracy, button-polishing, etc., recently sold enormously, and this line
is also run by the "Daily Mirror," the soldiers' favourite paper, which was
nearly suppressed a few weeks back for its criticisms of the higher com–
mand. On the other hand the pamphlets which used to appear earlier in
the war, complaining about the hardships of army life, seem to have faded
out. Perhaps symptomatically important is the story now widely circu–
lated, that the real reason why the higher-ups have stuck out against
adopting dive bombers is that these are cheap to manufacture and don't
represent much profit. I know nothing as to the truth of this story, but I
record the fact that many people believe it. Churchill's speech a few days
back in which he referred to possible use of poison gas by the Germans
was interpreted as a warning that gas warfare will begin soon. Usual
comment: "I hope we start using it first." People seem to me to have got
tougher in their attitude, in spite of general discontent and the lack of
positive war aims. It is hard to assess how much the man in the street
cared about the Singapore disaster. Working-class people seemed to me to
be more impressed by the escape of the German warships from Brest. The
opinion seems general that Germany is the real enemy, and newspaper
efforts to work up a hate over Japanese atrocities failed. My impression
is that people will go on fighting indefinitely so long as Germany is in
the field, but that if Germany should be knocked out they would not con–
tinue the war against Japan unless a real and intelligible war aim were
produced.
THE RUSSIAN ALLIANCE
I have referred in earlier letters to the great growth of pro·Russian
feeling. It is difficult, however, to be sure how deep this goes. A Trotsky–
ist said to me recently that he thought that by their successful resistance
the Russians had won back all the credit they lost by the Hitler-Stalin
pact and the Finnish war. I don't believe this is so. What has happened
is that the USSR has gained a lot of admirers it did not previously have,
but many who used to be its uncritical adherents have grown cannier.
One notices here a gulf between what is said publicly and privately. In
public nobody says a word against the USSR, but in private, apart from
the "disillusioned" Stalinists that one is always meeting, I notice a more
sceptical attitude among thinking people. One sees this especially in con–
versations about the second front. The official attitude of the pinks is that
if
we open up a second front the Russians will be so grateful that they
will be our comrades to the last. In reality, to open a second front with-
