16 MARCH 1962, Page 13

SIR OLIVER SCOTT Mr. Leavis writes: 'But it is basic

cliché—more damagingly, for Snow's pretensions, cliché than the kind of thing I instanced first, for it dismisses the issue, tacitly eliminates the problem, discussion of which would have been the raison d"eire of the lecture if Snow had been capable of the preoccu- pation, and the accordant exercise of thought, he advertises.'

I would be delighted if any really cultured gentleman (from Cambridge, preferably) could tell me (a) what the quotation from Leavis means?

(b) if this is an example of good English?