SIR. —There is no great disagreement between Pharos and myself about
the Establishment, or Lord Beaverbrook. But the comparison between the BBC and the Bank of England will not stand. The financial oligarchy which ruled the City of London, the national economy and—to a large extent—the inter- national economy for over a century before the war was the hard core of the most formidable Establishment we have ever known.
Mr. Fairlie's description of the BBC as the 'embodiment' of the Establishment may well be a delight; but, without in any way disparaging the victories of Mr. Norman Collins, it cannot seriously be argued that Lord Reith and his successors ever wielded a tithe of the power exercised—without direct responsibility—by Mr. Montagu Norman and his predecessors.
Lord Beaverbrook carried out the first raid on the citadel of the Establishment. It came off. Thereafter, with massive support from Keynes, whose articles he frequently published, he fought and lost many bloody battles. Today he may be rich and powerless; but the white flak flies over the citadel. 1 think it not unreasonable to describe this as a successful challenge.—Yours faithfully,
BOOTHI3Y.
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