Dickie's deceit
Sir: I read with interest Mr J. H. S. Turnbull's letter (22 June) which criticised me for being unfair to Lord Mountbatten. He began by saying that I wrote an article in the Times of 13 May 1990 which he describes as 'useful publicity indeed'. Actually, the article was an extract from `This is the Tesco Wing.' my book which the Times had bought. Later on he describes a tate-a-tate he had with Mountbatten in the corner of a but in Burma in which the Supremo apologised for the mess he made of Operation Myrmi- don. This, he argues, proves that I was wrong in saying that Mountbatten never made mistakes. Let me be quite clear. The person who said he never made a mistake was Lord Mountbatten himself on televi- sion. In his career he frequently made candid remarks but because he worried about his reputation in his old age, when he had the opportunity he made, as Lord Head once remarked, 'The Whitehall air black with burning papers.' For example, the official account of the torpedoing of the Kelly due to his flashing signals has vanished. Records of all the other des- troyers in his flotilla are available.
If Turnbull wishes to find a scapegoat, he should remember that the guilty parties in the unmasking of Mountbatten were Lord Brabourne and Lady Mountbatten who allowed the publication of the official biography which gave away all the secrets Mountbatten had destroyed and hid.
Lord Lambton
Villa Cetinale, 53018 Sovicille, Italy
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