20 DECEMBER 1968, Page 25

Sir: It is perfectly true, as my colleague Patrick Hutber

wrote (Letters, 13 December), that 1 re- gard Kingsley Amis's assault on Yevtushenko as 'inept' and much of the tone of the attacks as 'unfortunate.' But I would not like-it to be thought that I did not find the pro-Yevtushenko propaganda—against which Amis was reacting —very much worse; still less that I do not de- precate Mr Hutber's own methods of contro- versy most of all, since to make his point he quoted remarks of mine to him in private con- versation, without my permission.

Peregrine Worsthorne 14 Airlie Gardens, Kensington, London W8 This correspondence is now closed.—Editor, SPECTATOR.