DRIBERG IN MOSCOW
SIR,—The comment by Pharos on my reported statement implying that Mr. Guy Burgess had secured the publication in Russia of Sir Harold Nicolson'i book, Diplomacy, is correct. Mr. Burgess made no such claim, and I have no recollection of saying that he had; but, since I do not like 'blaming the reporter,' I will only say that I did mention Sir Harold's book as among the English books now widely read in Russia, and that this might easily have been telescoped into my other statement, in the same interview, that Mr. Burgess had been responsible for the publication there of The Quiet American, by Mr. Graham Greene.
I hope I may add a word of congratulation to the pseudonymous author of the delightful skit on my Moscow visit in the same issue of the Spectator—even though, I fear, much of the point of it will have been missed by those of your readers who did not see my interview with Mr. Khrushchev in the previous two issues of Reynolds News. Mr. Burgess hap- pened to telephone me from Moscow on Monday morning. I read him extracts from this parody, and he found it as amusing as
I did.—Yours faithfully, TOM DRIBERG Bradwell juxta Mare, Essex