Church and duty
From the Revd G. M. Scott
Sir: A contemporary of yours has sent me your review of Alan Paton's Apartheid and the Archbishop (Spectator, June 1). If it is true that Edward Norman present Dean of Peterhouse
was only eight at the time the South African Government excluded me from South Africa, he is old enough now to know that there can be scarcely anything more ,ilamaging to a pastor than to say of him, as he did of me, that I had deserted my flock. I would ask you whether you consider this a fair account of what happened and what Alan Paton said of it. If Paton's description of the circumstances supported him I would accept it as fair reviewing.* But for the sake of those who are made to suffer as a result of this kind of reviewing I must ask you to dissociate your journal from this damaging allegation. I have been trying with my savings and a bequest to establish a 'Mandate Trust' for the purpose of fulfilling my own and what I consider to be our civilisation's obligations to the African people of South West Africa and Rhodesia, especially Britain's, and I should be glad to know what you and the Dean of Peterhduse would consider an appropriate contribution to this Trust.
Michael Scott 43 King Henry's Road, London NW3 * Editor's note: A relevant passage in Mr Paton's book reads as follows: "Clayton was unenthusiastically tolerant of Scott's campaign for Right and Justice, believing that Scott was being used by people for their own ends. He might have been equally unenthusiastically tolerant of Scott's participation in the passive-resistance campaign in Durban, but he disapproved strongly of Scott's leaving his post without permission. . . Clayton's judgement was firm and stern, delivered without anger. He told Scott that he could not continue to hold his licence for a particular piece of work and then leave it for another without permission.
"He had given instructions that Scott's stipend should be kept for him but he would not do so again. Unless Scott would undertake to abide by these conditions, his licence would be withdrawn.
"Scott felt unable to give this assurance. He could not know when he would be called to further action. Accordingly he gave up his post in the parish of St Alban."
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