Wonderful Party
By N. K. BOOT 0, you're by no means the last, Mr. Boot. We're expecting quite a gathering to meet Doctor Gong. My only worry is that perhaps there aren't going to be enough tea-cups to go round.• Still, Doctor Gong is more Important than the flesh-pots, isn't he, so we shall just have to manage as best we can. . . `: I expect you know everybody here. Of course, you know old Jack Chuzzlewit. He's gone a bit deaf, but otherwise he's wonderful ' • simply wonderful. D'you know, he told me the other day that he'd been moving steadily further and further Left ever since he broke with Keir Hardie and formed his own group of activists after Bloody Sunday ? Isn't that wonderful ? Eighty years of progress, and in mind as young as any of us, I do believe. " That's Reg Rosso and Bill Bianchi over there in the corner. You know, those two and Bert Blau put on an absolutely wonderful pageant this summer of Britain's progressive leaders through history. It started with Boadicea, and everybody who saw it said it was a million times better than all that dreadful Festival propaganda. " Ah, here's someone you must meet. This is Father Fosdyke. He's President of the League of Progressive Priests for Peace. As I expect you know, P.P.P.'s been doing absolutely wonderful work—the Dean said it was the only truly spiritual movement he'd found outside Russia. High praise, isn't it ? And now I'm going to be frightfully indiscreet and let the cat out of the bag. Father Fosdyke's just been given a tremendous honour. I must tell you about it, although I'm not supposed to, because it isn't official yet. He's been made honorary-chaplain to the Head- quarters Division of the Rumanian Secret Police! Isn't that wonderful ?
" Oh, there's Gilda Rosenkrantz and Rosa Guildenstern. I'm sure there's no need for me to introduce you to them. Had any luck with your visa yet, Gilda ? " I'm afraid it's going to be terribly difficult to squeeze you in for a talk with Dr. Gong. He seems to have got rather cornered by Professor Moorhen. . . . Perhaps if you hang around here behind the Professor for a bit, or. . . . By the way, don't you think the Professor's wonderful ? I mean the way he manages to do so much. Sometimes I wonder whether his students ever see him, what with all his work for L.T.P.B. and T.O.L.L.O. and O.T.U.Y.L.S.D. and all the rest. And all that travelling! " The Professnf's tremendously bitter about Labour's undis- guised swing to Fascism. You know that wonderful manifesto which he wrote about co-operation with progressive intellectuals • in Eastern Europe ? Well, he sent a copy of it to all the papers here—just as a test case really—and none of them printed more than four lines of it! And Pravda printed it all! So much for freedom of speech under a Labour Government is what I say! " Oh good, good. Here's Lucy Lentil, just back from Berlin. How happy she looks! Lucky Lucy! And Ted Windsor- Brown, who's just off to Warsaw. g. . . And Tanya Mulliga- tawnay, who ought to be in Prague if the Home Office would let her out. . . . And ' Uncle' Thick, who ought to be in New York if the State Department would let him in . . . And Professor Nkash, and Mrs. Stub, and Miss Das, and Captain Ba and Mr. 0. . .
" And now I do believe that Dr. Gong is beginning to make a move. Let's have speeches first and tea afterwards. Isn't it wonderful to think that the doctor has come thousands of miles just for peace and friendship. Some of the things he's told me privately about what our Government's been doing—arming Chiang Kai-shek, egging on India and Pakistan to fight each other, trying to start a new war between the Arabs and Jews and so on—have opened even my eyes. . .
" Let's sit on the floor so that we can hear better. This ought to be very very interesting. . ."
[Unfortunately, just as we were going to press, representatives of M.I.5, the American Embassy and the Cornite des Forges called at this office and seized the text of Doctor Gong's speech. We are, therefore, unable to print it]
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