24 JULY 1971, Page 30

Partymanship

Sir: L. E. Weidberg's tiresomely ubiquitous missives are presumably symptomatic of a sort of chronic publish-o-philia. That 'public figures' do not reply to them may not be for the reasons that he suggests. Even the most vulnerable of them must surely recognize the disease.

One of his letters does deserve a reply, however. Not because of its profundity. Quite the reverse, for Its absymal superficiality must be obvious to all. But because of the historical stature of Marx and Engels, whom it half-truthedly misrepresents.

But that letter has been skilfully placed — in the Observer where L. E. Weidberg well knows that it is safe. For the Observer has a strictly observed de facto ban on letters from Communists — as the least observant of its readers will have long ago realized.

So much for L. E. Weidberg's fearless partisanship!

Ken Geering 38 Penn Crescent, Haywards Heath, Sussex