, 6111 .—Strix, in his article on ' Crichelitis,' and ,
is threatened by bumptious bureaucrats. It is the implacable threat of remorseless personal publicity for their misdeeds, and is equally effective against Hitlerian civil servants or time-serving politicians.
During the last war I came in contact with a painful case, in which a very old friend was almost killed by worry and frustration, at a time when his only son was doing notable service in Burma. His hotel of fifty bedrooms had been requisitioned by the Ministry of Health, and subsequently des- troyed by fire, with all its valuable equipment. Meanwhile, after two years, the Ministry had not even settled the compensation rent to be paid. I took up the case as a Briton who was not satisfied with the action of his servants; and, after endless frustration, found it necessary to write to the Minister in these tcrms: ' Sir, Unless you get on with the job whiCh your people have so foully neglected over the last two years, I shall publish the whole dirty facts of the case in the form in which I send them to you, to every Member of Parliament, of the LCC, and the Press. What are you going to do about it ? I have the honour to be, etc.'
The result was electric: for the whole case was cleared up within two weeks, after more than two years of gross and callous neglect.
could quote a number of other personal cases in which similar shock tactics have proved equally effective—notably the one, two years ago, in which I (a poor old pensioner of commerce) had to use the
Inspector of Taxes' seven days' notice in
reverse, and threaten him with personal exposure to the Prime Minister, the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer, and the Permanent Head 'of the Civil Service, if he did not pay me the money which was manifestly overdue to me. Needless to say, he paid up !
I would make bold to say that, if Lt.-Cdr. Marten had dealt similarly with his case at an earlier stage, the Crichel Down enquiry and debate would not have been necessary: and he would now be in peaceful possession of the lands to which his family have indubitable right, by every principle of moral truth and virtue, and any decent standard of service to the men and women of Britain.— Yours faithfully,
STEPHEN MORGAN
Downlands, Beachy Head 'Road, Eastbourne
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