LETTERS TO THE EDITOR From: Lord Boothby, Conor Cruise O'Brien,
Mrs. Helen S. U. Hodgson, Ben Whitaker, L. Sefton, John Connell, Marc I. Lee, Philidor, Peter Preston, Mrs. Angeline A. Hampton, Paul Paget, L. T. Peabody, and Sewell Stokes.
Golden Age of the BBC
SIR,—The short answer to the allegation of Mr. Angus Maude that I tabled a Parliamentary Question to ask the Postmaster-General whether he would order the excision from BBC programmes of all comments on foreign affairs is that I don't believe it. But I am not prepared to verify the reference, because I have a ghastly feeling that it may be true.
In January, 1932, 1 had a meeting with Hitler alone in Berlin, which lasted for two hours. After this I was convinced that a second world war was inevitable. 'Somehow,' I wrote in a subsequent article, 'Hitler has managed to communicate this passion of his to masses of desperate people. And therein lies his power. The cry "Heil Hitler!" re- echoes through Germany today. We should not underestimate the strength of the movement of which he is the living embodiment.' It may be that thereafter I thought that the BBC was being too indulgent to Hitler and the Nazi rdgime—although less so than The Times; and that this caused me to put down a very silly question.
But Mr. Maude, if he chooses to do so, can find better references to me than he has done in his ar- ticle. On the basic issues of the 1930s I was right. There were many moments when I stood alone in the House of Commons pith Winston Churchill and Brendan Bracken; and this is an epitaph of which I can only be proud.
House of Lords, SW 1
BOOTH BY
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