A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
THIS week's American mail has brought me a variety of letters and cuttings which throw some light on the extra- ordinary medley of forces playing on public opinion in the United States in regard to the war. It is true of course that the country is 90 per cent. pro-Ally, but mainly because it is 90 per cent. anti-Nazi. British lecturers are under constant attack as propagandists ; Mr. Duff Cooper, as an ex-Cabinet Minister, has been the chief target. A new popular sheet called Friday devoted its first issue to pillory- ing about a hundred of them—some of whom, incidentally, have never been in the United States at all, while others are there for quite other reasons than to further the Allied cause. Some Washington circles are worried about the difficulty of convincing the Germans that their defeat will not mean the dismemberment of their country. The Satur- day Evening Post, with its immense circulation, ran in one issue an editorial attacking Lord Lothian and Federal Union and in another an article from Ireland harping still on the wrongs that unhappy island suffers at British hands. On the other hand, my own American friends themselves are passionately eager for Allied success. They represent the majority opinion, but the minority is always vocal and often malignant. * * * *
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