Dupes and nitwits
MEN like Maxwell create willing dupes. In patronising political figures, he did no more than Beaverbrook — who kept a cabinet minister on retainer — but that patronage was covert and Maxwell's was overt. There was something ignominious about it, for I was sad to see a brilliant friend become an ornament on Maxwell's ample watch-chain, and now the chain has broken. The Leach- es, by contrast, have brought off a double. Ronald Leach, the accountant, wrote the report which said that Robert Maxwell was a man of many qualities, but not the sort of chap to be left in charge of a public compa- ny. Rodney Leach, the banker, has been reminding the world of that warning, and is entitled to do so, for he fought N.M. Roth- schild's war against Maxwell even longer ago. I at that time was less than convinced of his own client's merits, Rodney was quite clear about Maxwell's demerits and would ring me up in tones of dangerous languor: `Look, Christopher, I suppose you think that we here at Rothschilds are a lot of complete nitwits ...' What must he think of his successors, who accepted his old foe as a Rothschild client? Dupes? Nitwits, per- haps._
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