Marxianity Sir: One would love to know the identity of
'Mr Stuart Reid who so blithely writes that 'the Ostpolitik of the Catholic Church has been thoroughly [sic] examined and discredited' in a 'booklet' by a French journalist 'who died recently', called Monsieur Henri Leclerc. I can imagine Chesterton's gigantic laugh at the thought that Mr Reid and the late Monsieur Leclerc in his 'booklet' have been able to correct the innocent errors of Pope John XXIII, unable to see the world outside the Vatican windows. 'Mr Reid', or is it 'Monsieur Leclerc' for they are a bit inseparable, even condemns poor Pope John for receiving Mr Adjubei, Khruschev's son-in-law, at the Vatican as the beginning of the thaw, or as M. Leclerc, the prime authority, writes in the essential booklet, 'The subsequent history of this dialogue is inherent in this juxtaposition of cause and effect.' As it happens I know a little about this dialogue which perhaps was not quite so serious as your Mr Reid makes it appear.
[happened to meet Mr Adjubei late one night at the Tropicana night club in Havana. (He was dancing with the only pretty girl from the British Embassy party —a juxtaposition to be regretted.) I called out to him as he went by, 'How did you get on with Pope John?' and I'm afraid he made a long nose at me. Later however over a drink he was more polite and informative. He told me, 'The Pope said something very very profound.'
'Yes, what was it ?'
'He said, "You and I go by different routes to the same end".' I laughed. I said, 'Yes. To death, I suppose,' but I had the impression that Mr Adjubei, like your Mr Reid and the lamented author of 'the booklet', had a different interpretation.
Graham Greene Paris 17e
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