Straw votes have always to be handled with caution, but
they are often more reliable all the same than the assumptions of politicians as to what ordinary men and women in the country are thinking. On Thursday of last week Mr. Vernon Bartlett, in his usual broadcast talk on foreign affairs, discussed the two alternatives of national isolation on Lord Beaverbrook's lines and the signature by this country of an international -agree- ment -embodying a simple definition of aggression and committing the country to the use of all forms of pressure in case of need against a violator of the agreement. Within six days 20,000 postcards had been received and they were still coming in fast. They take time to analyse and I can only speak regarding the examination of the first 8,000. Of those 89 per cent. declared in favour of combined action against an aggressor, and 11 per cent. in favour of isolation. Whatever allowances are made for the fallibility of such attempts to gauge public opinion the figures are far too striking to be ignored. • * *
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