A Spectator's Notebook
A FEW WEEKS ago the Spectator printed an engaging parody of Tom Driberg's description, in an English newspaper, of his meeting with Guy Burgess in Moscow. Never imagining that anybody would take the attribution seriously, the Spec- tator printed Burgess's name. To our astonishment, the parody fooled a number of people, including experts on Russian affairs. Now, however, the laugh is on us. A letter has come in from : It will be found in the correspondence columns; but, as it is I whom he attacks, I propose to answer its criticisms here. It is more than five years since Mr. Burgess chose Stalin. In that time, I fear, he has lost touch with the principles of independent journalism. His suggestion that the Spectator is a servile puppet of the Government will raise a hollow laugh in a good many circles. Is not Mr. Burgess's concern for press freedom a piece of double-think? I feel some hesitation in resorting to what Mr. Burgess holds to be the grossly unfair device of quoting Communist pronouncements; but I am informed that the Soviet journal Party Life of May, 1955, states: 'The force of our press lies in the fact that it is directed by the Communist Party always and in everything.' Mr. Burgess has indeed detected me in one minor error of reference—that of the Lenin quotation. My opinion of government departments being what it is, I only wish that I could confirm Mr. Burgess's delightful theory that the inaccuracy proves that it must come from the Foreign Office. Alas, it was a slip in transcription made in this office : the date of the Lenin article is indeed 1915, but the edition of his Selected Works referred to should read : 'New York, 1943.' If I am a puppet, it is not of MI5, but of Wall Street!
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