Dented mudguard
Sir: A collision between the imprecision of my writing style and the precision of your editing caused a sentence to appear last week in my article on Hong Kong (`Great wall of lies', 10 April) which carried a meaning slightly different from that which I had intended.
I had recorded my presumption that a story from a Hong Kong newspaper head- lined 'Governor Urged to Give Way' could scarcely have arisen other than from a For- `We drive home down the MI.' eign Office briefing; and I had gone on to say that such a briefing, had it occurred, would have been an act of 'exceptional brio'.
In the sentence as printed, after a slight repointing of syntax, I appeared to be asserting in much more categorical form that such a briefing had indeed occurred; and, further, that any official denial of its having occurred should be regarded as `exceptional brio'. This was, needless to say, not what I meant.
Robert Cottrell
56 Doughty Street, London WC1
Previous page
