WAR SYMPATHIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 May 1940, Page 9

WAR SYMPATHIES

AMERICANS’ FEELINGS. TWO POLLS COMPARED. After about seven months of war, 84 per cent of Americans wanted the Allies to win—the same proportion as in the first few weeks of the struggle. This is shown in the second poll on war sympathies taken by the American Institute of Public Opinion. The result was briefly cabled at the beginning of April and more details are now available.

In both tests the institute’s agents' put the same question to corresponding cross-sections of the people of all 48 States: “Which side do you want to see win the present war—England and France, or Germany?” Although relatively very small in numbers, those who wanted Germany to' win significantly declined from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. A further 15 per cent declared themselves completely neutral or offered no opinion in the second test, compared with 14 per cent in the first.

On the second occasion those who gave a definite opinion were asked:— “Do you feel more sympathetic or less sympathetic towards that side than you did when the war began?” To this question those favouring the Allies answered as follows: More sympathetic 28 per cent; less sympathetic 17 per cent; just the same 55 per cent. Those who felt greater sympathytoward the- Allies showed by their comments that they did so in the main because the war was apparently not going as well as expected for Britain and France, they increasingly disliked Germany’s war tactics and her rule of conquered Polish territories, and they had a growing belief that the Allies were fighting for a principle that was important to America|

Most criticism of the Allies among “less sympathetic” voters was expressed in such remarks as: “I’m beginning to feel that the Allies are nearly as much to blame as Germany.” “The Allies aren't doing all they could to win the war." "They didn't do enough for Finland.” Such observations came most often from people between the ages of 21 and 30.

Another recent survey by the institute showed that only 23 per cent of tho voters favoured a declaration of war and the sending of troops if the Allies should appear to be losing.