Smart Alecs
Sir: Your policy of refusing to allow con- tributors to append footnotes to readers' letters accusing them of errors, therefore disposing of the matter briefly, forces me to write to you, thereby consuming space which ought to be for the exclusive use of readers. Geoffrey Wheatcroft writes (Letters, 8 January) to say that Clem Attlee lied to the Commons about the RAF's bombing of Ger- many. He did not. The bombing was never indiscriminate. It was as selective as the tech- nology of the day allowed and Attlee's assur- ances in the Commons were strictly in accor- dance with the truth as he understood it. Unlike Wheatcroft, I knew Attlee and I am quite sure he was incapable of a deliberate lie to Parliament.
Your Australian reader, Mr McLachlan, argues that my criticism of his teacher, Man- ning Clark, is inconsistent with the fact that I cite his History of Australia in my Birth of the Modern: World Society 1815-1830. In fact, I cite documents quoted by Clark and assume that not even he would have falsified them. My main source for the section on Australia was not Clark but the Australian Historical Records, edited by F. Watson. At the time I was preparing my book, Clark had not yet been exposed as a fraud by his own publisher and his History was considered standard by many. Even today it is probably a reasonable guide to the earlier period, the one I was dealing with; it was only when covering later periods that Clark began to write fiction. Mr McLachlan should address himself to the substantive criticism of Clark and stop mak- ing smart-alec debating points.
Paul Johnson
29 Newton Road, London W2
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