Spectator's Notebook
QUOODLE has departed. But I am glad to be able to begin my first Notebook by recording a last, posthumous, victory. Some weeks ago in these columns he drew attention to the retro- grade decision of the American authorities to shut down the US Information Service Library in London. With acid pen he challenged Washington to reconsider. Washington trembled . . . and reconsidered.
As a result, a special reading room and reference library will be kept open at Grosvenor Square, with a staff of three and some 2,500 volumes of Congressional hearings, current magazines and the like. Alas, this is only about 10 per cent of the old library; a Congressional cut-back on funds for Europe has killed the rest. Most of the existing volumes will find their way to the far less accessible London University Library. But at least we've saved the reading room. There's still 10 per cent of a special relationship.
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