BRITISH VIEWS ON GERMANS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 148, 29 August 1941, Page 4

BRITISH VIEWS ON GERMANS

SIR ROBERT VANSITTART, noted British ex-diplomat, has pointed out that, while the British fail at first either to like or to understand the* French on. first acquaintance, those Englishmen who have long been in residence in Germany who to the French caused On the other hand, while Englishmen who are but slightly acquainted with the Germans are disposed to be friendly toward them, it is precisely those Englishwen who have long been in residence in Germany who must distrust tha J , country. Superficially, there are similarities between the British and the Germans; fundamentally, these two races are more widely separated than are tlie British and the Gaul. The probability is that British estimates of the Germans and of the French are likely to be wrong in each case. Public opinion is an important element in a democratic! community—and particularly so during wartime, when public opinion has to submit to some degree of restraint of expression. It is therefore desirable to. know with some degree of accuracy what are the opinions held by the British public concerning the German people after nearly two years of warfare.. The British Institute of Public Opinion has devised three statements which seemed to represent as nearly as possible the three main strands of feeling. Deliberately framed in simple language, these three statements were read to voters all over the country by institute interviewers in the latest Gallup survey. The statement and percentages of answers for each were: — 18 p.c.: The Germans are a barbarous and uncivilised people, and I hate them all. ,52 p.'C. : Some Germans are not bad, but as a nation Germany is dangerous to the peace of the world. 30 p.c.: The German people are all right; it is only their leaders who are evil. The survey should be taken, not as the verdict of a jury as to the correct view to. be taken of the German people, but as a rough-and-ready guide to English opinion. The surveyors proclaim that numbers of the upper and middleinccme groups were markedly more ''middle of the road" than the lower-income group, which was more extreme at both ends, the percentages of that group voting for the first and last statements being higher than in either of the other two economic groups. Those voters who polled for the Opposition were inclined to be more extreme than those voters who supported the Government at the last election. The survey of public opinion must not be regarded as firstclass evidence of the condition of opinion in England, because the questions, being made simple, beget answers which are too generalised, whereas most people would desire to be more particular in their answers. If further surveys are taken the trend of public opinion will be revealed, and it is in the registering of these trends that the Gallup surveys fulfil their most useful purpose. Experience in America reveals them to be remarkably accurate in their registration of changes in public opinion.