4 MARCH 1960, Page 4

The Inquisitors

'THE discourse on brainwashing given by Or .1 Alexander Kennedy, Professor of Psychologi• cal Medicine at sEdinburgh University, to the Royal Institution has attracted less attention than it deserves; if the Science Correspondent of the Observer had not picked it up it might have gone unnoticed, particularly as the papers, for Abe second weekend running, had little space left for this or any other such subject. According to Dr. Kennedy brainwashing was developed in Britain during the war to extract confessions from spies' The techniques used appear to have resembled a cross between those described by Arthur Koestler in Darkness at Noon and by Nigel Dennis in Cards of Identity; but the exact details cannot be given for 'security' reasons. It is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that security has been invoked to prevent discreditable procedures front being made public; if Dr. Kennedy's account is correct, it is clear that the authorities here were employing the same odious methods that aroused such angry reaction here when they were used by the Chinese in the Korean war. The onlY difference appears to be that compared to oti brainwashers the Chinese do not seem to be very good at the job. It would be interesting to knoW who the grand inquisitors were, here. Who thought tip the procedure? Who authorised it? And who was responsible for its execution?