Sir In your January 10 issue Auberon Waugh writes:. "It
was a particularly happy accident that my first piece, in praise of General Pinochet last week, . . ." Shouldn't someone inform Mr Waugh that he did not write a piece in praise of Pinochet? He wrote a rather dull piece on the hoary old question of whether Britain needs a written constitution, and appended the title 'Pinochet is beautiful' together with a rather feeble attempt to draw some parallel between events in Britain and Chile. No doubt he did this because, even to a British readership, events in Chile during the last few years seem more interesting than discussions on the British Constitution. H.. seemed much more at home discussing Arts Council grants, a subject on which he is well informed and stimulating.
If you could commission an article that really praised General Pinochet in a reasonably informed manner by someone who thinks Chile is an interesting place, I would enjoy reading it. Failing that, a reasoned justification of the Chilean coup would suffice, even if it stopped well short of finding it beautiful. The reason you are not likely to publish such an article has, however, already been touched on by Mr Waugh. Anyone who could write such an article could, no doubt, get more than £600 for it from several American magazines.
Putnam Valley, NY10579 R. F. Lever
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