More interesting than the stolid acquiescence of the majority are
the minority moods which flicker like fire-flies above a marsh. There was some evidence, of course, of a Communist alignment expressing itself, on one occasion, in a question addressed to me by a private soldier. Undeterred by the presence of his colonel, but much embarrassed by the hoots of his companions, he asked me in a loud but agitated voice whether I did not agree that we had been driven into this war by the fierce campaign launched against Germany by the capitalists of the great national newspapers. I replied that I had not myself observed any very marked anti-Nazi bias in The Times newspaper or other of our national journals, nor did I feel that either Lord Rothermere or Lord Beaverbrook had been intent upon driving us into a second European war. Such propulsion as there had been had come from the newspapers of the Left, and even that had been both moderate and polite. " Well," he said, " the bankers anyhow." The picture of poor Mr. Norman swung before my eyes.
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