A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK
IT would be charitable to suggest that Mr. A. R. Johnstone, of the British Ally, the paper published by the British Embassy in Moscow and sold to the extent of 50,000 copies (which is all that the agreement between the British and Russian Governments permits) is a case for mental therapy. He was once a sub-editor on the News Chronicle, discharging there useful, but hardly exalted, functions, and after keeping a hotel in Barcelona and subsequently pursuing some avocation in Mexico was appointed Editor of the British Ally two years ago. His duties, I gather, were mainly technical, con- sisting of the laying-out and making-up of the paper. Most of the material was provided by the Central Office of Information in London, and the Press Attaché at the Embassy exercised general supervision. Mr. Johnstone was known to be very definitely Left at the best of times, and people who saw him when he was in London last year remarked that he had gone pretty Red. He did not, however, feel it necessary to resign his post on the British Ally then, and when he resigned it last week he omitted to inform the Ambassador briefly of his action till he had written a 3,000-word letter to Pravda setting forth the gist of his views, convictions and intentions. This communication, as reproduced with intelligible effervescence by the Daily Worker, shows that Mr. Johnstone has acquired the regulation jargon to perfection. His reference to " a war bloc of imperialistic Powers, headed by the U.S. and Britain" is a jewel that has adorned articles and speeches by the hundred in the last three years and its survival-value is infinite. Mr. Johnstone is going to settle ,in the Soviet Union and work for peace. Both parts of his decision are to be applauded.
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