Sir: In his generous letter about the Tol- stoy/Aldington affair,
Alistair Home says that the two things puzzled him in my recent article. Why did I not make my anger at the repatriations known sooner? And why did I not share the blame for what happened with others like Field-Marshal Alexander?
At the time, I expressed in an official document, for which I was nearly court- martialled, our distaste at the orders we were given. Later, I had no reason for protesting publicly until Lord Bethell and Nikolai Tolstoy published their books, and then I took part in the television documen- tary and gave evidence at the trial. My arti- cle was written to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the affair, and it summed up what I had long been saying privately and in public.
I agree with Home that Alexander has much to answer for, and I said so at the trial. He approved the order for the repatri- ations, then issued a contradictory order which was ignored, failed to visit Austria till it was all over, and seems never to have understood what was being done in his name. Harold Macmillan, as his civilian adviser, could have used his influence to mitigate the disaster, but never did. I believe that its root cause was cynical appeasement of Stalin and Tito, at the cost of some 50,000 alien lives. Why, at this dis- tance of time, should we not admit it?
Nigel Nicolson
Sissinghurst Castle, Cranbrook, Kent
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