MY PARAGRAPH last week on the News Chronicle's Gallup Poll
has drawn a reply from its director in which it emerges that the question to which I objected was never asked in that form at all. I said that to divide the answers to the question 'What do you think is the best way of avoiding a future world war?' into 'military measures' and 'negotiations and other non-military measures' Was to prejudice the issue in the minds of those asked the question, but Mr. Durant now writes that this was a mere tabulation and the question Was quite 'open.' I therefore withdraw what I said last week about the 'angling' of the Poll's ques- tions. On the other hand, while I am all against the pollsters influencing the people they question, it does seem to me that to answer a large and Windy question like 'What do you think is the best way of avoiding a world war?' without giving specific alternatives is a. pretty pointless operation, and certainly one on which it is impos- sible to base even remotely accurate conclusions. To suggest, as the News Chronicle headline did, that the results of the Poll indicate that 'More pin hopes on talks—not bombs' is ridiculous.
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