The Newsletter, vol. 7 no. 302

TORIES MUST GO NOW!

Vol. 7, No. 302 •HE Profumo scandal has blown the lid off Tory Britain. The State, Parliament and the Church are all involved.

The secret police, Mis, responsible only to the Prime Minister, who have known all about Mr. Profumo since 1961, kept their mouths shut. Scotland Yard has charged Dr. Ward, a one-time tenant of the Astor millionaires, with living 'wholly or partly on immoral earnings"

Thus one section of the police force keep another section in the dark about what is going on.

Top Tory ministers gathered in the early hours of the morning of March 21 to work out the most plausible lying formula to explain away ihe exploits of Mr. Profumo.

Blasted The Church through Mervyn Stockwood mutters something about 'morals in high places whilst all the moral principles of the class which it has so long defended are being blasted to pieces in every edition of the Fleet Street press.

Throughout all these shattering events, more and more evidence is brought to light which proves conclusively that the ruling class and the criminal underworld rub shoulders in the same circles.

Labour leaders such as Harold Wilson tell us that the Profumo scandal is not a moral question. This is the language of humbugs and hypocrites. It is a moral question—a question MACMILLAN: HE MUST HAVE KNOWN of class morality. * Tory societyCommodity The Profumo-Keeler scandal concerns class power, class politics and class morals, where with the lid off sex is a commodity and where so-called family life is a relic pps. 2 & 3 of the Victorian era. The degeneration revealed by this episode is a product of a class system which has long ago outlived its usefulness. * The Press and The curtain has been drawn aside to reveal the lives of a section of the parasites who live and rule by the exploitation of labour. While millions of the crisis • page 4 working people toil for low wages and hundreds of Saturday, June 15, 1963 thousands starve on the dole, the ruling class lives it up and strives for the greatest possible happiness at the expense of the majority of the people.

The State with its police force is an instrument of the capitalist class. The Church is an instrument of the State because it fights to create a system of abstract morality, such as sanctity of home and family life, to justify the rule of this class.

Parliament is an instrument of the State dominated by the same breed of self-confessed liars as Profumo.

Disarray Meanwhile, the Tory Party is in disarray. Like a couple of woodpeckers on their country estates, Lords Home and Lambton feverishly peck away at the Tory Cabinet. Their anxiety springs from the knowledge that, since they rest on the same foundations, what is going to happen if they are successful in dislodging Macmillan?

Lord Hailsham, without his bell, rushes grimly from one ministry to another.

Out in the country, where the church-going Tory little people live, there have been some startling goings-on. Over last week-end, at the opening ceremonies of the church fetes, tombola shows and bran tub treasure hunts, hosts of backbench Tory MPs, who have never spoken in Parliament in their lives, have been letting fly at Macmillan.

As one old dowager put it: *We just can't believe in anyone any more."

Defence Harold Wilson, Labour's leader says it is a question of defencedefence of what?

What is this ex-boy scout talking about?

Defence today is the defence of capitalist Britain, a defence of the right of Profumo's class morality to continue. Defence, like Tory morality, is a class question. Everyone has been waiting for George Brown, the loud-mouthed member of Parliament for Belper, to speak up. When it comes to witch-hunting Young Socialists, Brown is right on top of the job.

Long ago the 'Daily Mirror", recognising his talents, made him one of its industrial advisers.

When the big boss of the Mirror, Cecil King, took over the Odhams Press group, he had several private discussions with the late Hugh Gaitskell and George Brown.

Fourpence Were the 'moral issues' during these discussions?

The Daily Mirror ranked amongst Mr. Gaitskell's most ardent supporters. He was their man.

Now listen to what it has to say about the Labour Party and the Profumo case:

*The Labour Opposition is prudent to concern itself with national security rather than private behaviour.

*Dammit, it is only half a year ago since a boy of sixteen was freed at the Old Bailey after a judge reduced a charge of murder to manslaughter, and a jury said "not guilty" without hearing the defence.

'A man had made homosexual advances to the boy. The boy picked up a decanter, hit him on the head, and killed him.

The man who died was Mr.

George Ivor Brinham, Chairman of the Labour Party in the year 1959 to 1960.

*Yes, the less said about political morals the better."

['Daily Mirror' *, June Worthy?

Not very complimentary, is it Mr. Brown? One wonders if the labourer is any longer worthy of his hire.

Cecil King is, of course, giving Mr. Wilson his marching orders.

He says, there are too many skeletons in your cupboard, so keep your mouth shut and concern yourself with the defence of the right to keep the cupboard doors closed on the skeletons.

The 'Daily Mirror' is, in fact, twisting the arms of the Labour leadership behind its back. It poses as the apostle of purity in Fleet Street of all places, like a drunken parson in a Tory brothel.

Mr. Brinham was the nominee of Gaitskell and Brown for the chairmanship of the Labour back page, col. / → HAROLD WILSON Ex-Boy Scout worried about defence.

Paze Two THE NEWSLETTER TT

June

Mr. Macleod, rose before a packed house and begged leave to make a personal statement. Such a statement, in parliamentary terms, is extremely rare, con-

Privy Councillor, a favourite of the Queen Mother, family controls the Provident Life Assurance. Tory MP-and self-confessed liar THE BACKGROUND TO THE PROFUMO AFFAIR N December 14, 1962, five pistol shots dramatically thrust the name of Christine Margaret Keeler before the public. The shots were fired a 30-year-old West Indian salesman, who was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment at the Old Bailey for possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Edgecombe was acquitted of shooting with intent to murder or cause grievous bodily harm. The charges arose out of a shooting incident at Wimpole Mews, Marylebone-the home of society osteopath Dr. Stephen Ward-where Miss Keeler went to visit a friend, Miss Marilyn Davies.

It was said in evidence that Miss Keeler, aged 21 and described as a freelance model, had left Edgecombe and taken a flat in Great Cumberland Place.

MISSED While she was visiting Miss Davies, Edgecombe arrived and fired five shots at the door. Miss Keeler looked out of a window and Edgecombe fired two more shots at her, both of which missed.

Edgecombe claimed that the pistol belonged to Miss Keeler, who had bought because she was afraid of a man named Gordon. On December 14 he visited her to return the pistol and had no intention of shooting her.

When the trial opened on Thursday, March 14, at the Old Bailey, the prosecutor, Mr. Alastair Morton annou iced that the principal witness, Miss Keeler, had disappeared.

"MAN AND WIFE' Edgecombe was acquitted by a separate jury of wounding with a razor Aloysius Gordon, a West Indian singer at the Flamingo Club, Soho. Gordon, in evidence, said he and Miss Keeler had been more or less man and wife for 18 months, until she became friendly with Edgecombe.

On Friday, March 15, while the trial was still in progress, the 'Daily Express' carried two main stories on its front page. The first stated that the War Minister, Mr. John Profumo, had offered his resignation to the Prime Minister for 'personal reasons* but Mr. Macmillan had asked him to stay on.

One column away was a large picture of Miss Keeler and the news that she had vanished.

The next day, Mr. Profumo and other Tory spokesmen denied that he had asked to resign. They did not deny, however, that Mr. Profumo had a hurried meeting with Mr. N acmillan and the Tory Chief Whip, Mr. Martin Redmayne, in the early hours of the morning, before issuing the denial.

It became clear what the "Express" was hinting at on Thursday, March 21. Duri ig a debate on the Vassall Trit runal and the imprisonment of two journalists, a Labour MP, Mr. George Wigg, intervened:

'Are we quite sure the same thing is not happening again?' he asked, interrupting the Home Secretary.

*There is not an MP in this House, and I don't believe there is a person in that public gallery, who in the last few days has not heard rumour upon rumour that involves a member of the government Front Bench."

Mr. Wigg challenged the Home Secretary to deny these rumours which concerned Miss Christine Keeler. Other Labour MPs, Mr. Richard Crossman and Mrs. Barbara Castle, made it clear that the rumours also involved a government minister.

NO COMMENT Mr. Henry Brooke, the Home Secretary, said he did not propose to comment on rumours raised under the cloak of privilege.

Other ministers, however, thought differently. Next day, Friday, March 22, Mr. Profumo, flanked by Mr. Macmillan and the leader of the House of Commons, sidered to be of the highest importance and therefore unquestionably true.

Mr. Profumo said: 1 understand that my name has been connected with the rumours about the disappearance of Miss Keeler. I last saw Miss Keeler in December 1961, and I have not seen her since. I have no idea where she is now.

COMPLETELY UNTRUE *Any suggestion that I was in any way connected with, Or responsible for, her absence from the trial at the Old Bailey is completely untrue.

*My wife and I first met Miss Keeler at a house party in July 1961. This was at Cliveden [Lord Astor's estate in Buckinghamshire].

'Among a number of people present was Dr. Stephen Ward, whom we already knew slightly, and Mr. Ivanov, an attaché of the Russian Embassy. The only other occasion my wife and I met Mr. Ivanov was for a few moments at an official reception at the Soviet Embassy. -My wife and I had a standing invitation to visit Dr. Ward between July and December 1961, I met Miss Keeler on about half a dozen occasions at Dr. Ward's flat when I called to see him and his friends.

FRIENDLY Miss Keeler and I were on friendly terms. There was no impropriety in my acquaintanceship with Miss Keeler and I have made this statement because of what was said yesterday in the House by three members whose remarks were protected by privilege.

I shall not hesitate to issue writs for libel and slander if scandalous allegations are made or repeated outside this House.

Mr. Profumo was loudly cheered by the Tories. Later that day he and his wife went racing with the Queen Mother.

Mr. Profumo subsequently took legal action against the British distributors of an Italian magazine. He won and paid the costs into an army benevolent fund.

CHRISTINE year-old freelance mot e woman behind the scar of century.

Hon. John Profumo Aged 48, educated Harrow and Oxford. Privy (our right loyal and trusty') Councillor, ex-Minister of State for War, salary £5,000.

Father the late Baron Albert Profumo. Entitled to call himself Fifth Baron of the late United Kingdom of Italy.

His family control, through trusts, the Provident Life Assurance of London. The company's share register shows that in 1962 return members of the Profumo family and their various trusts held between them well over a million of the A and B ordinary shares. Share prices on June 6 stood at 25s. 3d.

Member for Kettering in 1940—then youngest MP in House of Commons. Defeated in Labour landslide in 1945. Returned as member ton Stratford-on-Avon in 1950. Aged bury, don dress Posts have i acluded Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Parliamentary Secretary to Ministry of Transport.

Keen fox-hunter and ber of Boodle's club.

alerie Hobson Aged Stage and film actress. Biggest success in London stage version of *King and I. Songs included: 'Whenever I Feel Afraid I Whistle a Happy Tune, 'Hallo Young Lovers, Whoever You are, I Hope Your Troubles are Few and •We Kiss in a Shadow. Left the show in 1954 to marry Profumo.

tristine Keeler 21. Born in VraysBucks. Arrived Lon1958, worked in Soho shop, as waitress, showgirl in cabaret club, then turned to modelling.

r. Stephen Ward Stephen Aged 43. Society oste opath and artist. Son of late Canon Arthur Evelyn Ward of Rochester Cathedral.

Educated Paris and America where he took degree in osteopathy. Patients have included Sir Winston Churchill, Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Getty.

Has sketched members of the Royal Family, including Prince Philip, Princess Marina, the Duke and Duchess of Kent and Lord Snowdon.

He has also sketched millionaire Mr. Macmillan, Duncan Sandys, millionaire Paul Getty, millionaire Nubar Gulbenkian-and the late Hugh Gaitskell.

Had week-end Thames-side cottage on Cliveden estate of Lord Astor. Lord Astor Aged 55, third marriage to former top fa shion model Bronwen Pugh.

Succeeded to title in 1952. Was Tory MP for Fulham East from 1935 to 1945 and for Wycombe, Bucks in 1951-52. Director of "The Observer newspaper trust. Cliveden famous for society functions. "Cliveden set before the war notorious for appeasement attitude to Hitler.

Lord Astor paints as a hobby and hunts with Whaddon Chase in Bucks.

ndr. Eugene Ivanov Former Soviet naval attaché in London. Recalled to Moscow last December. Full-time member of Russian Military Intelligence service, the 'Glavnoye Ravydatelnoye Upravleniye or GRU.

That wonderful huggy bear of a man'-Christine Keeler.

tune 1963 5 Three

The bookselling chain of W. H. Smiths refused to distribute copies of the American "Time' magazine which contained an article on the Profumo-Keeler affair. Paris Match' had a similar article deleted from copies sold in Britain.

There was considerable speculation in the press as to the possible whereabouts of Miss Keeler. Speculation ended on Monday, March 25, when she was 'found" by the 'Express' and the Herald' in Madrid.

She claimed she had left the country because of all the things people were saying about her. She denied Edgecombe's statemants in court and said she planned to stay in Spain indefinitely. The Foreign Office agreed she was under no compulsion to return.

"TRUE' SHE SAID In an exclusive interview with the "Express' the next day (March 26) she declared Mr. Profumo's Commons statement to be true.

Peacef practis Soviet mixed Keeler in wealthiest businessmen bers of the aristocracy.

At one time I got to know Captain Eugene Ivanov, the assistant naval attache at the Russian Embassy. I met him when Stephen Ward introduced US.

Miss Keeler did not stay in Spain indefinitely. She returned to England and on April 1 went to the Old Bailey to apologise for being absent from Edgecombe's trial.

She was forfeited £40 'witnessrecognisance. AS she left the court, Aloysius Cordon waved a letter at her, burst through a crowd of onlookers and tried to approach her. He was forcibly restrained by a number of policemen, frog-marched away, thrown into a taxi and told to leave the area.

On April 3 the 'Daily Herald' headlined the story that a thief had broken into the London home of Lord and Lady Astor and stolen a private letter. The Astor's butler said the CID thought the intruder was after eler and used Ward as an interme an attempt to reach a US-Soviet il, and joyous, co-exist ed between the osteopath intelligence agent. Ivanov business with pleasure with and used Ward as attempt over Cuba. brother, Dr. Stephen Ward."

Gordon said that after he met Miss Keeler something took place which put him in an embarrassing position. That something was venereal disease.

Miss Keeler intervened at this point and was escorted from the court. Gordon said Miss Keeler had told him she had known Ward since she was 14 and she went to live with him. Since then he had been teaching her to aggravate people. Since the age of 17 she had been working as a call girl.

In the middle of this case came Profumo's resignation, on Wednesday, June 5. The resignation brought to light a number of events prior to this which obviously had considerable influence on Profumo's decision. In April, Dr. Ward asked for an interview with Mr. Macmillan's private secretary. The conversaence was and the skilfully Christine rmediary deal tion was was reported to the Prime the Prime Minister.

Mr. Profumo was called to Admiralty House and confronted with allegations made by Dr. Ward. He insisted that his statement to the Commons was true.

'NOTHING TO HIDE' On May 21, Dr. Ward issued a statement which said he placed before the Home Secretary certain facts concerning the relationship between Mr. Profumo and Miss Keeler. • it is obvious now that my efforts to conceal these facts in the interests of Mr. Profumo and the government have made it appear that I myself have something to hide -which I have not."

Newspapers did not publish this statement for legal reasons. The Home Office kept the contents of the statement secret. -When the House of Commons rose for the Whitsun recess, Mr. Profumo and his wife flew to Venice. He then requested an interview with the Prime Minister, but Mr. Macmillan was away in Scotland.

It was agreed, instead, that he should see the Chief Whip, Mr. Redmayne. He returned to England and informed Mr. Redmayne and Mr. Bligh, the Prime Minister's private secretary, that he had misled the Commons in his earlier statement and wished to resign from the government and from parliament.

On June 5, his letter to the Prime Minister was published. In my statement I said that there had been no impropriety in this association [with Miss Keeler]. To my very deep regret I have to admit that this was not true and that I misled you and my colleagues, and the House."

T have not been in his company since December 1961, she said.

She said she had gone to Spain for a holiday with racing driver Paul Mann and a photographer, Kim Proctor. They were in Spain for some few days before they heard of the uproar in Britain over her and Profumo.

She told the 'Express' how she had come to London to become a model. From being a corny 15-year-old shopgirl I now know diplomats, foreign envoys, film and stage stars, some of Europe's QUOTES:

I like helping girls of humble birth adapt to the needs and stresses of modern living'Dr. Stephen Ward.

You can say this for Christine - at least she's multiracial.'—Labour M T have been in public office for 10 years. Who is going to believe Keeler's word against mine?' - Mr. John Profumo.

*Mandy [Rice-Davies] chimed in with details of the high living that had earned her a Jaguar, mink and diamonds by her 17th birthday. At one dinner party, she recalled, "a naked man wearing a mask waited on table like a slave. He had to have a mask because he was so well known"! — 'Time' magazine, June 14. some sort of information.

I wonder if this is an thing to do with the case of Dr. Ward and Christine Keeler?' the butler asked.

CLIVEDEN COTTAGE The Herald' also reported that several weeks before a cottage on the Astor's Cliveden estate, used into.

The whole affair quietened down for a few weeks-but it was the lull before the storm. By the middle • of April, events were moving at lightning speed.

Aloysius Gordon was arrested and accused of punching and kicking Miss Keeler on April 18 as she was leaving a flat in Devonshire Street, Marylebone.

Gordon appeared for trial at the Old Bailey and received a sentence of three years imprisonment for assault and occasioning actual bodily harm.

Giving evidence on Thursday, June 6 Gordon said when he first met Miss Keeler she asked where she could get Indian hemp.

'She gave me a telephone number and said I could phone her. She said she would like me to find a coloured girl for her ALOYSIUŞ GORDON 3 years—not so 'lucky" A REVEALING example of the tactics used by the Soviet bureaucracy in pursuing 'peaceful co-existence with the imperialist nations is found in the activities of Cmdr. Eugene Ivanov, the former Russian naval attaché in London.

Both Ivanov and Profumo were 'associated' with Christine Keeler. The farcical thing about it all, says Mandy Rice-Davies, a friend of Miss Keeler's, 'was that, on more than one occasion, as Jack left Christine at the [Wimpole Mews] flat, Ivanov walked in."

It is nonsense to suggest that Ivanov courted Keeler for purely personal reasons. He is a fulltime member of the Soviet Military Intelligence Unit.

It is understood that Dr. Stephen Ward has stated that he acted as an intermediary in a Soviet move to get the British government to call for talks between the Russians and the Americans at the height of the Cuba crisis.

Dr. Ward has said that the approach was made by Cmdr. Ivanov on the initiative of the Soviet Chargé d'Affaires, Mr. Loginov. It was made to Dr. ward in the presence ot a Member of Parliament.

During the Cuba crisis, Ivanov had daily meetings with Dr. Ward, who passed the information to the Foreign Office. Ivanov said the Soviet government were committed to defending Cuba, but it had no way to do so short of war. They were anxious for talks with Kennedy, but did not want to propose this themselves.

Tory Lord Arran has said that Dr. Ward asked him to meet Ivanov. The approach first came from Lord Astor on whose estate Ward had a weekend cottage and where Keeler first met Profumo. Q.-Why is the 'Daily Worker' so quiet over the activities of Ivanov who used as an intermediary between Khrushchev, Macmillan and Kennedy, a socialite now charged with living on the immoral earnings of prostitution?

DR. WARD has stated that he informed MIS in January 1961 of the relationship between Profumo and Keeler.

Q.-MI5, as a government secret service department, is answerable, in the final analysis, to the Prime Minister. Is it conceivable that Macmillan did not know of his Minister's association with a "model' and that the whole affair was hushed up?

CHRISTINE KEELER became famous as the 'missing model' in the Old Bailey trail of John Edgecombe. No one knew where she was-until she turned up in Madrid.

Q.-But if MIS had been watching Keeler and Profumo since 1961 is it possible that she could have left the country without the knowledge of the security men?

And why didn't the Clerk of the Court at the Old Bailey follow the usual procedure when witness is absent and issue a Ber for reti A FEW hours before Mr.

Profumo denied to the House of Commons any impropriety with Miss Keeler, he was questioned by Tory party officers, including Mr. Iain Macleod, Mr. Martin Redmayne and the Attorney General Sir John Hobson, about a letter to Christine which began 'Darling".

Mr. Profumo laughed it off by saying "darling' was his usual mode of address for women. The officers accepted this statement and indicated their suport for him by their presence in the House. Q.-Who are the Tories trying to fool? Has there not been a conspiracy of silence since 1961 over the activities of a high Minister of the Crown?

BACK-BENCH Labour MP, Mr. Ben Parkin, Paddington North, tabled a question in the House of Commons about Dr. Ward's letter to the Home Secretary. He was summoned to Mr. Harold Wilson's room and asked to withdraw the question.

Mr. Wilson had also received a letter from Dr. Ward. He presented a dossier of information to the Prime Minister. Before leaving for Moscow, he said he felt it was his duty to do this, rather than make his facts public. Q.-Who does Mr. Wilson represent-the labour movement or the corrupt system that spawns Profumos?] Mr. Wilson's activities answer this question.

The Profumo Affair June 15. 1963

GEORGE BROWN strangely silent. Party's youth sub-comm Lee, where he distinguished hir self not for his strictness over the "moral issues but by his enthusiasm for witch-hunting the left wing.

Of course it was convenient to hush up the George Brinham affair with his f15 a week bachelor flat, for the same corruption that affects the Tory Party affects the Labour Party; they defend the same state and the same basic property system that breeds the corruption.

After he threw the decisions on the H-bomb of the Scarborough Conference into the dust-bin, Gaitskell stressed that the Parliamentary Labour Party was not responsible to the Party or its annual conference.

Incentive Is this state of affairs not an incentive to corruption in high places? If the rank and file don't control the leaders, who does? Everyone knows that the parliamentary lobby is crawling with business sharks from early morning till late at night.

Has not the time come for an investigation into the connections between • Labour MPs and big business? The rank and file members of the party and the trade unions have every right to such information.

Is it not clear that the sentences on the Jamaicans Gordon and Edgecombe-3 years and 7 years respectively—are clear signs of the viciousness of the ruling class as it reacts instinctively to protect itself in crisis? All Labour organisations must press for these sentences to be revoked.

*The Guardian' said on June 6 that the relationship between private conduct and public service is delicate enough at the best of times as any newspaper's files could show?

Serves Why then does this stalwart of liberalism remain silent? It is because its political ideas serve the class in whose interests it is best to remain silent.

It is not only Tory morals which are on the spot, but the morals of the Labour bureaucracy at the top of the trade unions, as well as in the Labour Party. All those who fight, through their collaboration with the state, to illaboration with the state, maintain capitalism, are ultimaíely dragged into the cesspool as those who are a recognised part of it.

We think the moral issues must be discussed. We say that the issue of defence is nonsense.

We say that unless the next Labour government is prepared to expropriate the rich idlers and their party politicians, such as Profumo, and run Britain along socialist lines, then it must share the responsibility for capitalist decay.

Vulnerable The Daily Worker calls for the removal of the Macmillan government. But this is not enough. A Labour government operating capitalism is just as vulnerable to corruption as the Tories.

We say now, as we have said many times in the past, that the next Labour government must nationalize the land and all building undertakings; nationalize the basic industries and introduce workers' control.

It must give freedom and independence to the colonial and semi-colonial peoples and withdraw all troops from overseas.

Socialism is the only effective answer to the Profumo scandal. was finally brought open.

Now that Profumo has resigned, the press can go to town. Page after page is filled with titillating details and editorials pour abuse

Wilson must demand 'Tories resign!' Coventry, July 7 The Railway Inn, Warwick Speakers: Reg Perry, Manchester, July 7 Registrar's Office, All Saints Speakers: Jack Gale, Cliff Glassow, July 7 Grand Hotel, Speakers:

London, July 14 Cora Hotel, Upper Woburn Place, Speakers: Cliff Slaughter, Liverpool, July 21 Walker Art Gallery, Lecture Hall (side entrance), Had .30 Healy 7.30 p.m.

Slaughter Charing Cross 7.00 Mike Banda, Bob Shaw 7.30 William Brown Street 7.30 p.m. Speakers: Cliff Slaughter, G. Healy

The Profumo Scandal The Protumo scangal FURIOUS round F of blood-letting and backstabbing is in progress between the Tories and their usually oh-so-reliable press.

The Fleet Street news hounds, with their noses always a-quiver for the sordid and the sensational, are having a field-day with the Profumo affair. Day after day more startling facts are splashed across the front pages—to the acute embarrassment of the government.

The press, anxious for as much independence as possible from the state machinery in order to pursue their own campaigns for policies and personalities, received a sharp smack in the teeth from the Tories during the tribunal which inquired into the Vassall spy scandal.

Two journalists who refused to disclose their sources of information to the tribunal were jailed for three and six months. This was, in effect, a stern warning from the Tories that unless the press toed the line they would be muzzled.

ALIST LABOUR LEA Ins'ead, with their for them 1 the House privilege.

JOHN VASSALL

received smack in teeth.

The gutter journals and purveyors of the cheap and the nasty were angry and brooding. With their millionaire backers wanting a clear say in the running of the country, they nursed their wounds and waited for an opportunity to strike back.

That opportunity arrived with the Profumo affair. But even before the Minister for War threatened libel action against anyone who suggested anything improper in his relationship with Christine Keeler, the papers were jittery at the thought of possible come-backs if they printed the truth.

AGOG

And that truth was known. For some considerable time now Fleet Street has been agog with the story of Profumo and Keeler.

But with the larruping they had received over Vassall, they were not anxious to rush into print on this issue. A nod, they say. is as good as a wink and the Daily Express' certainly nodded very vigorously, but even cavalier Lord Beaverbrook would not say too much.

On the independent television programme "This Week' on June 6, Mr. John Freeman, the editor of the 'New Statesman', said he knew the full story in February this year, but did not print it:

If we or any other newspaper had published the story we might have had fifteen, twenty or even €100,000 libel damages given against us."

FED the press led' MPs information in order • raise the matter in under the cloak of In this way the affair and scorn on the Prime Minister and his government. Between; and sometimes on, every line is the clear implication that Macmillan must have known since 1961 of the goings on between Profumo and his mistress.

SAVAGE

Even "The Times' has weighed in with a savage indictment of the government and the society they have created in 11 years of office. When the staid Victorian maid of Printing House Square flings away her staunchly pro-Tory quill and lambasts the government with considerably more ferocity than the so-called 'Labour' papers, it is time to take note:

However multifarious and ingenious the causes to which the Conservative Central Office ascribe the desperate state of the party's present fortunes as shown by the opinion polls, the overriding reason is that eleven years of Conservative rule have brought the nation psychologically and spiritually to a low ebb.

CARICATURE

• It may be a caricature for the Washington Post' to say that "a picture of widespread decadence beneath the glitter of a large segment of stiff-lipped society is emerging".

But the essence of caricature is to exaggerate real traits.?

Trotsky said that "The Times* told the truth, without fail, on every small event in order to lie more effectively on the big ones.

Just for once, though, they are speaking the truth. Yes, The Times' has spoken. Things can never be the same again.

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