Clement Attlee
Sir: Mr Christopher Hollis's interesting and enter- taining note on Lord Attlee's personal character (13 October), prompts me to venture to mention a slight anecdote about the former Prime Minister, coming from the only occasion on which I was fortunate enough to meet him.
A decade ago, when I was up at Balliol, I was invited by an officer of the University Law Society to his rooms at Worcester to meet Lord Attlee following, a talk he gave to the Society. After a time I asked, with no lack of respect though with a lack of caution which I share with perhaps a few others of my fellow Australians, why the British Labour party continued to accept a system of hereditary titles and honours despite the egalitarian ideal which I assumed was one of those informing the party's policies. Lord Attlee dismissed my only effort to discover his views on political theory with the remark, somewhat gruffly delivered: 'Young
man, you may do what you want in your country' if you will be so good as to let us do what we want in ours.'
E. R. Pocock Australian Embassy, Phnom Penh
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