Table Talk
Sir: I have a number of apologies and explana- tions to make to the readers who have been pointing out errors in my last two Table Talks. I had never the innocent belief that there was any constitutional provision or even written con- stitutional practice which insisted that all mem- bers of the cabinet of Northern Ireland had to be members of the Orange Order. I merely asserted, on what I thought was good authority, that all were. But I don't quite gather from Mr Chichester-Clark (Letters, 6 December) that any members of the Ulster government have not been members of the Orange Order. He admits that the great majority have been: have there been any who were not members of the Order? I am glad to learn that not all Unionist hes at Stormont are members of the Order; but, again, how many are not or have not been members of the Order? Is it true that until recently no Catholic could be a member of the Ulster Unionist party?
As for my errors in writing from Bologna, my only defence is that I was down with in- fluenza cinese. I have no excuse for my slip about King Enzo. But the-question of casualties in the First World War is not quite as simple as Mr Waddington asserts. When he says that Britain lost 812,000 killed, does he mean Britain or the British Empire? And the Italians maybe wrongly claim a much higher casualty list than is given by Whitaker.
To turn to Mr Lamer, I have no excuse for writing that San Petronio is the cathedral of Bologna. I knew it wasn't, and had in fact paid 350 lire for a guidebook which reminds me that the Cathedral is San Pietro. However, I made a 'much worse slip in referring to St Peter's as the cathedral of Rome. One of the things I do know is the text of `Madamina.' Indeed, cer- tain friends in Washington with whom I nor- mally stay have laid it down that I must not ever sing `Madamina' late at night, or indeed at any time. I knew the text was purcha. and I think I typed this. But it was very difficult in- deed to send corrections to the SPECTATOR from Bologna. Milan, Marseilles and Mirabeau in the Vaucluse, which I attempted to do. Next time I am in foreign parts, I must try to arrange a better system of reading and correcting proofs.
Before anyone else gets in ahead of me, I plead guilty to misquoting the ironic title of the latest 'Peanuts' book in Italian. I have no excuse since the book was in front of me with the title correctly given.
Previous page
