12 MAY 1967, Page 2

`Encounter' and the CIA

The revelation that the American govern- ment's Central Intelligence Agency has been, for most of the magazine's lifetime, a major source of Encounter's financial support, is easily the best joke of the week. The notion of CIA men meeting in earnest conclave to decide how much to spend on propagating the gospel as exemplified by the Warden of All Souls' sexual exegesis of Lady Chatter- ley's Lover could scarcely have been bettered by Graham Greene.

But it is not only a joke. That a respected British journal of ideas should have been government-subsidised without acknowledg- ing the fact is bad enough. That it should have been subsidised by the intelligence agency of a foreign power is intolerable. And did the Foreign Office know about the CIA connection all along? Since it, too, was help- ing the marp7ine, it seems unlikely that it did not. Yet"ff so, it seems odd that no pro- test was made when Encounter decided to celebrate its tenth birthday in 1963 with a special number entitled 'Suicide -of a Nation' —a series of articles dedicated (to use the Prime Minister's phrase) to selling Britain short.

Indeed the relationship between the CIA and the British government is a good deal more importdnt than that between the cu and Encounter, and it is time that more was known about it. Not so long ago, for ex- ample, it was the practice for the CIA man in London to attend meetings of the Govern- ment's Joint Intelligence Committee. Does this practice still prevail? If so, what recipm. cal facilities does British intelligence enjoy in Washington? And, above- all, how is a relationship of this kind in any way com- patible with the political objectives and aspirations that have prompted Mr Wilson to apply to join the European Communities? These questions should be answered, and answered as soon as possible.