22 NOVEMBER 1963, Page 7

A Spectator's Notebook

1 xi strange case of Pro- fessor Barghoorn is one of those brief flashes of lightning on the skyline that illuminate the true state of the Cold War. It comes as an invaluable reminder when many superficial commentators (Sir Alec Douglas-Home included) are talking cheerfully about 'the end of the Cold War.' The truth is that there is still a very wide gulf in basic aims which the passage of years and a new generation of Soviet leaders may bridge. It will end only when there are men in the Kremlin and in the Imperial City in Peking who have given up the concept of world domination by Communism.