17 JULY 1964, Page 11

Where Did We Meet?

I find 'I'm sure you don't remember the last time we met' an infuriating observation. One scrabbles back through the corridors of school, Cambridge, the war, political meetings and miscellaneous parties. In Africa I had less ex- cuse for forgetting. Even so, 1 goofed it when a Malawi Cabinet Minister asked me. When I gave up, he replied, with great enjoyment, 'You were Secretary of State and I was head detainee in Kanjedza. I showed you round.' Of course,' said, 'silly of me.' And it was. After all, most of the Cabinet had been in detention. 'Only the British,' as Dr. Banda said in an amiable reply to Prince Philip at the civic lunch at Blantyre, 'put a man in prison one day, and ask him to Buckingham Pa lace the next.'

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