Sir: I have long admired Mr Auberon Waugh as a
brilliant writer of fiction, and the more I read of his Political Commentary the more this impression is confirmed.
In the SPECTATOR of 4 October he gives his account of a speech on South Africa which he describes me as delivering at the Labour party conference at Blackpool. I would be interested to see his notes of that speech, particularly be- cause throughout the conference I was a mem- ber of a Commonwealth Parliamentary Delega- tion to Singapore, some several thousand miles from Blackpool.
I believe that printed advertisements which might otherwise be confused with articles are prefaced by the legend 'Advertisement.' I won- der whether, lest some readers might mistake Mr Waugh's humorous pieces for fact, you would consider clearly labelling them as 'Fic- tion'?
Auberon Waugh writes : I described no such speech by Mr Whitaker, but merely drew atten- tion to the sideshows on offer. The promise of Mr Whitaker at his mincing machine was ad- vertised all over Blackpool for meetings of the Anti-Apartheid Movement and of the Move- ment for Colonial Freedom. Perhaps Mr Whitaker would have saved himself some trouble if he had insisted that these advertise- ments, to which he lent his name, were headed `Fiction,' or, more simply, 'Fraudulent.' Until this is clearly stated, many people will be kept away from these meetings, as I was, by the appalling risk of the advertisements proving truthful.
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