11 APRIL 1947, Page 16

THANKS TO GEORGE III

SIR,—The member of the Soviet delegation, who was surprised to find a portrait of George Washington in the National Gallery (A Spectator's Notebook, March 28th), might have been told that, to strike a fair balance, there is a full-length portrait of George III hanging at the top of the main stairs in the British Embassy at Washington. I once asked one of the Embassy secretaries why that particular king had been chosen. "You see," he said, "he was one of our greatest kings. He got rid of the American colonies while there was still time."—I am, yours, &c., The Athenaeum, Pall Mall, S.W. I. A. L. GOODHART.