Equally inscrutable
The curious thing about Richard Crossman's remark that the Duke of Edinburgh's tele- vision interview in the States on the subject of the Royal finances was 'vulgar, unjust and untrue', is that he should find it neces- sary to deny it. His stout support of the Crossman /Johnson article on the Monarchy in the NS brought a typical reaction from the Mirror which began by headlining the affair like art atrocity case and then back-tracked rapidly when it discovered that four out of five of its readers agreed with Crossman. Yet first he allowed his remark about the Duke to stay in the early editions of the Sunday Telegraph, after having it read back to him over the phone; then he persuaded Brian Roberts, the editor, to remove it and denounced Ian Waller, the author of the piece, in the Tintev; and finally he admitted the quotation to John Gordon, the columnist, over the phone, and denied it in a call to the Sunday Express two hours later. In the last instance he was perhaps, understandably, trying to get John Gordon off the line —but why ring back? It can hardly have been fear of disaffecting Sunday Express readers from the NS.
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