HOME TRUTHS FROM AMERICA
By MARQUIS W. CHILDS*
IF only because so many intangible values are involved, it is difficult to try to appraise the relations between one country and another, the attitude of one people toward another, at any given moment. In America there have always been conflicting currents of opinion, often even in the same social group, toward Britain. The events at Munich last September have certainly profoundly affected these currents, but in what direction and to what extent it is difficult to say.
Apart from what may be termed professional isolationism, there is no doubt that British prestige in America has suffered heavily. The comment in the Press throughout the country, and not only the Press of the Left, is merely a slight echo of a deep undercurrent of resentment and chagrin. The conviction remains, for all the talk that has come out of London about saving the peace, that Munich was not merely a shameful betrayal of a democratic State but also a final and helpless capitulation to the armed force of the dictatorships. Paradoxically one hears this often from these very isolationists who seize every occasion to insist that America must stay at home and keep out of all alliances, whether with democracies or with dictatorships.
Mr. Eden's visit afforded an interesting illumination of American attitudes. I should say that even informed persons who make some pretence of following the trend of world affairs expected the late Foreign Secretary to assail the Chamberlain policy of appeasement. We were pre- pared to receive him, for all that we knew his visit had Mr. Chamberlain's blessing, as the white knight of Europe, to use the florid phrase of one of Mr. Eden's most ardent editorial admirers. Therefore his principal speech, before the National Association of Manufacturers, came as a distinct anti-climax. In the light of this expectation it had an empty, hollow sound.
This does not mean that the Eden visit was not, from the British point of view, useful. It undoubtedly strength- ened the ties that have long existed between the Foreign Office and the State Department in Washington. Incident- ally, this is a cause for grave -suspicion among the isolation- ists in Congress, who are renewing the demand of a year ago that the right to declare war, in certain circumstances, be subject to popular vote. Mr. Eden saw many persons of wealth and influence and he must have been able to give them reassurances about the progress of British re- armament and the future course of British foreign policy.
* Mr. Childs is the Washington correspondent of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. As for the effect of his visit on public opinion, however, it is generally agreed that it was slight. It is precisely this that brings to the fore the question of the effectiveness of the ordinary and accepted modes for the exchange of good- will between the two countries. One can hardly escape the conclusion that the ordinary channels of diplomacy are inadequate to the present situation. They are far too limited, confined as they are for the most part to polite dining out with an extremely limited group. It must be said, of course, that the British representatives in America are invariably besieged by Anglophiles whose snobbism is only slightly less absurd than the dark mistrust of the Anglophobes.
A trivial instance will perhaps make clear what I mean. One of the guests at a small dinner for Mr. Eden was a prominent publisher. During the course of this dinner the publisher tried to bring the conversation around to world affairs by putting certain more or less leading questions to the distinguished visitor. This effort, it may be said, was on the whole unsuccessful and later the British host and hostess expressed deep indignation at such a profanation of their dinner table. " It isn't done, you know! One doesn't talk about serious things at dinner "! Such an attitude makes the whole rigmarole of diplomacy seem not a little foolish in the present-day world.
As in other periods of strain, we are just now hypersen- sitive to criticism from Europe. There is the feeling that Europe is snarled in a hideous mess and any advice at this time seems gratuitous indeed. Minor irritations serve far more than in normal periods to heighten the smouldering resentment that exists. The other day a visiting British journalist cabled a description of a White House dance to which he had been invited, writing down American débutantes as dowdily dressed and with poor complexions. In another article, also reprinted in a Washington news- paper, describing a Press conference with President Roose- velt, this same journalist proceeded to violate all the rules which American newspaper men agree to in the voluntary arrangement existing with the White House. It is by such trivial essays in smugness and bad taste that national attitudes are formed. We remember Dickens and the long procession of patronising visitors, forgetting such warm- hearted friends as Mr. J. B. Priestley, who has adopted Arizona as a second home.
It is an amusing commentary that the patronising attitude should have been reversed at this time. Miss Margaret Halsey's With Malice Toward Some is an account of English life so devastatingly satirical that it makes up for the American travel books of at least six travelling British lecturers. And it is not entirely due to the good fortune of a particularly enterprising publisher that Miss Halsey's book has sold more than four hundred thousand copies since it was brought out last fall. A public was ready made for the author's sly strictures on British hypocrisy, British dis- comfort, British smugness.
Labour and the Left in America have scarcely been re- assured by recent representatives who have come from British trade unions. Particularly among the new militants in America's newly-emerged industrial unionism there is a feeling that the leaders not alone of British Unions but of the Labour Party itself have lost sight of future objectives. They are preoccupied, it is felt, with a mass of petty details. Bargaining for a few pence on the pound, British trade union executives have sacrificed the possibility of national leader- ship and with it any influence they might have exerted on the course of world affairs in a period of crisis. This is, of course, the harsh judgement of a labour movement that is only just beginning to bump up against political realities.
All these minor impressions tend perhaps to make the picture seem much darker than it is. There is still an under- lying respect, and, yes, affection of a kind, for what we in America think of as British ; the solid core of ancient and honourable custom, the tradition of democracy and fair play, the quality of things well made, well done, the whole over- laid with a generous patina of sentimentalism. These are the counters, the symbols, that are still common currency, for all that the events of recent months have seriously debased them. (I know of at least two important publishes who are looking for authors for books dealing with " English myth.") There is a new element, too, that of pity. The war-scare of September, as reflected in the Press and on the radio, invoked the spectacle of London under a merciless rain of bombs. A muddled, kindly people seemed tragically help- less before the ruthless might of Fascism. Mr. Chamberlain himself, for all that the Leftist Press made him out a sinister plotter deliberately contriving the Munich capitulation, con- tributed to this picture. He appeared to be a confused and unhappy man with an umbrella. The plight of Britain today, and particularly for those Americans who know the country, must call up a very real sympathy.
It would be a mistake, however, for those who govern Britain to minimise the impact of Munich on American opinion. It has, in my belief, greatly strengthened the isola- tionists who would keep us strictly at home. And it has gone a long way toward undermining Britain's prestige. This is, of course, a first reaction. There may be a different story to tell when a year has passed. The King and Queen have set the date for their visit, and their welcome, or at any rate the curiosity aroused by their presence, will be great. It is by such events that goodwill, so-called, is created. But one may say without fear of exaggeration that it will be a long time before the intangible values that Britain had here- tofore as a matter of course on deposit in the bank of American opinion are restored.
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