13 JULY 1956, Page 15

Letters to the Editor

'A Coward's Way' Graham Greene A Poet of the Counter-Reformation Evelyn Waugh Gwaun-cae-Gurwen Noel Gee The Casement Diaries Sean Brady The Year of the Somme A. R. Clough Names and Places L. G. Usher 'A COWARD'S WAY' SIR,—Mr. Wilson in the House of Commons during the economic debate caused laughs and editorial footnotes by his references to a busi- nessman's decision not to leave England per- manently. 'That would have been the coward's way out.' There is' a tradition in thz House of Commons that a civil servant is not to ke attacked by name, but an ordinary member of the public has no protection from a Minister against the misuse of Parliamentary privilege. We have seen during the TV debates the inten- sive jealousies among Members of Parliament : now we see those jealousies turned on an author and entertainer who is paid by the demand for his services and not paid, whether we will or no, by the ordinary taxpayer. Mr. Wilson has tried to extend the meaning of the word 'cowardice' to include a writer's conduct in preferring another part of the British Com- monwealth to England as a place of residence, but surely 'a coward's way' might be Better applied to a Member of Parliament who attacks one of the public under the protection of privi- lege instead of making his charge of cowardice openly in such columns as yours.—Yours faith- fully,

GRAHAM GREENE C6 Albany. W I