12 APRIL 1957, Page 17

Letters to the Editor

'And the Other Writer' Grahame Greene Anglo-Saxon Platitudes Peter Ure, M. R. Ridley,

Burns Singer, Mary Holtby

Keir Hardie Robert Blake Strix Group-Capt. Guy Tyrrell, David E. Connolly Mental Healthmanship Dr. Donald McI. Johnson, MP,

Ivor R. M. Davies

The Angry Young Man John Osborne,

Anthony Creighton

Censorship Francis Watson Fair Deal for the Clergy Rev. D. E. Lilley British Farming David Yellowlees

'AND THE OTHER WRITER' am delighted to see that my friend Mr. Evelyn Waugh has received £3,000 as damages from the Beaverbrook Newspapers and Another. As in his previous case against Miss Rebecca West and Messrs. Macmillan, I seem to appear in the rather anomalous position of 'another writer.'

Mr. Faulks, announcing the settlement, said that the article was under the heading, in very heavy type, 'REBECC'A WEST ATTACKS EVELYN WAUGH' and another writer. Beside a photograph of the plaintiff appeared the words, in heavy type: 'They [the plaintiff and the other writer] have created a climate of crackbrain confusion between virtues and vices . . a climate in which the traitor flourishes.'—The Times, April 5.

I feel that to prevent misunderstanding I should mention that I did not bring an action for libel against Miss West and the others concerned, not be- cause I agreed with Miss West's remarks, but for two reasons : (1) that 1 am disinclined as an author to bring a libel action against another author and I could only detect in Miss West's remarks a pitiable confusion of mind, and (2) in the case of the Beaver- brook Newspapers Ltd. a libel action would have brought me in too close a contact with an organisa- tion. which I prefer to keep at a proper distance.— Yours faithfully,