11 APRIL 1958, Page 7

INVECTIVE, ALAS, cannot be summarised; but the flavour may be

given by Cassandra's conclusion: Before the 1939 war I reported the war in Spain when the Italians were bombing Barcelona. I was detained by the Gestapo at Tempelhof aerodrome in Berlin in August, 1939.

After my White-Feather-War I reported the war in Malaya, in Indonesia. and in Korea.

But in all my travels abroad I never met John Gordon—except once.

, That was at a cocktail party in San Francisco a couple of years ago.

He was doing some fierce hand-to-hand fight- ing with a dead sardine on toast.

A worthy opponent.