Reactions & Propaganda

Last night Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Rockefeller were here for the night, and a few friends were here for dinner. We had a very pleasant evening and talked about hemisphere affairs to our hearts' content. --Eleanor Roosevelt in My Day.

While this agreeable potlatch was going on, below the Rio Grande many Latin Americans were talking to their hearts' content about the Russo-German War. Last week these over-all reactions were reported in a survey of Latin American public opinion:

> Aristocrats, former traders with the Nazis and rightists largely favor a sort of Franco-type neutrality; in a significant number of cases they have taken the new war as a chance to assume a pro-German stand for the first time. The Roman Catholic hierarchy is almost entirely pro-Axis. Exception: in Mexico the great majority of the upper class is pro-Ally.

> The Latin American middle class is almost wholly pro-democratic and anti-Axis. The unexpected nature of Russian resistance has swung to the Russian side many a wavering liberal.

> Among the working classes there is a high degree of no opinion, ignorance or apathy. The majority of those who do have an opinion are prodemocratic. There is less pro-Ally sentiment among working-class Mexicans chiefly because of their anti-U.S. feelings. However, the attack on Russia has tended to eliminate the conflict in the trade unions between pro-Ally and pro-U.S. leadership on the one hand and anti-war leadership on the other.

It took no survey to discover that Latin Americans are sick to death of propaganda, wherever it comes from. Last week for the Argentine Foreign Office both the British and German Ambassadors crossed their hearts on paper to tone their propaganda down. Intoned Britain's Sir Esmond Ovey: "His Majesty's Government desire nothing other than to cooperate with the [Argentine] Government in whatever action tends to suppress factors of public intranquillity."

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