A don at war
Sir: Who is John Wells? (page 243 of your 16 August issue). I am agog to know how he learned what the dons who taught us said about Sir David Hunt and myself. At least he has our initials right; but he is not a hundred per cent correct since we were not 'exact contem- poraries'—D. W. S. went up in 1932, I in 1933. To be described as 'saintly' in a public journal is an unusual and (I find) unnerving experience; but I realise that (as our tutors might have saidI this article is a Tendenz- schrift, a powerful attack on my namesake in which I figure as a foil, artificially whitened to blacken him. I know nothing about his career or opinions since he took Greats, except for occasional references in the newspapers, but, so long as he remains a civil servant, such a personal assault, to which he is debarred from replying, seems highly unfair. It is suggested that Mr Harold Wilson (another Oxford man, one of several Wilsons) and Mr Michael Stewart have no control over our High Com- missioner in Lagos. What about the doctrine of ministerial responsibility?
I should like to state publicly—and hope therefore that you, Sir, will publish this letter —that I am in no way responsible for the use Mr Wells has made of my name and alleged 'saintliness' in order to blacken Sir David. I have no wish to defend Sir David—he, or the responsible minister, can see to that—but I have not 'lent my name' to Mr Wells: it has been 'borrowed' as it were without my leave.
G. N. S. Hunt 11 Claremont Road, Bromley, Kent
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