An affront to decency
S, ir: On reading Paul Johnson's comments
pla the spectator (3 September) on Roald ahl's article about Israel which appeared in the LiterarY Review, I at once telephoned the editor of that publication, withdrawing an article I had written for it. At the same (lite, I asked her to send me a copy of the number containing Mr Dahl's article;
thereby, I should have thought, making it clear that if I disagreed with Paul Johnson's appraisal I would reconsider my decision. In a covering letter to the copy of the magazine, the editor. Gillian Greenwood, declares herself 'shocked that a man with your reputation could withdraw an article on pure hearsay without asking to read the article in question before making a decision'. On reading Mr Dahl's article I realise that Paul Johnson's comments and quotations from it did not at all exaggerate the monstrosity of its contents, in which Mr Dahl identifies Israel — a country where many of its citizens have protested against their government's action in Lebanon (as I mould do myself) — with Nazi Germany. Miss Greenwood's capacity to be 'shocked' by my withdrawing a review, and not by what she published, seems astonishing.
Sir Stephen Spender
.15 Loudoun Road, London NW8
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