Bureaucratic excesses
Sir: Your otherwise excellent leader on the billions wasted by Department for International Development (22 September) fails to mention the duplication and excesses in the department and its parent Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Around the world there are only three classes of country: those whose money we want, those who need our money and those to whom we are indifferent, at least financially. In the first group we need embassies or high commissions but no DfID, in the second we need DfID but no FCO, and in the third we need neither. It is absurd to send aid to India, for example, a country richer than ours. It offends the Indians and implies we know how India should be run better than they do. Of course, money is not everything and we may seek politically to influence those in the second and third groups. Today there are plenty of ways to do that, through the UN, special meetings and short ministerial visits, without the costs, and now dangers, of permanent missions. And those countries may wish to have missions in London which need not be reciprocated. And while we are at it, we should eliminate the British Council wherever it fails to earn its keep.
Tim Ambler
Senior Fellow, Adam Smith Institute,
London SW1
Remember the Musketeers
Sir: It is always interesting to read the review of a biography by someone who actually knew the subject, as in the case of Alistair Horne’s review of The Spy Who Loved (Books, 22 September). However, he perpetuates some of the myths about Christine Granville (aka Krystyna Skarbek) — tales that either have no basis in fact or that give her credit for the work of others. Christine did not alert Churchill to the news that Operation Barbarossa was about to be launched. Credit for that discovery must go to a freelance group of men and women in Warsaw who called themselves the Musketeers (Muskieterze). They actually observed the Germans’ movements and copied their observations onto microfilm. One of their couriers, at great risk to his own life, smuggled the film out of Poland and delivered it to Christine in Sofia. She could not have possibly observed the troop movements since she was hundreds of miles away from Poland. She then handed the film to Aidan Crawley who sent it on to Churchill. The Musketeers have been almost completely left out of British accounts of intelligence matters during the war. Yet, for all the year 1940 and into ’41 they were SOE’s main source of intelligence coming out of occupied Poland.
Ron Nowicki
Author of Warsaw, the cabaret years
London N5
Investment banker’s logic
Sir: So Martin Vander Weyer has joined in the chorus of those who think that BAe Systems ‘merger’ with EADS is a good thing (Any other business, 22 September). Those who support this merger seem dependent on the facile investment banker’s logic: they are in a similar business so bigger must be better (RBS/ABN-Amro anyone?). The technical and administrative centre of gravity of the business would move inexorably to the continent, as it has done with so many other British manufacturing takeovers. As a Francophile, Mr Vander Weyer might like to study Candide and reflect on whether his Panglossian approach to the foreign takeover of a major British company and employer is really justified.
R.J. Price
Hereford
Joyless Ode
Sir: Further to Bill Proctor’s letter about the Brussels version of the Ode to Joy (22 September), Beethoven worked on the theme for many years to prevent the German text from imposing rhythmic monotony and he made it the raw material for the last symphonic movement he composed. When the EC chose the tune for its anthem, Herbert von Karajan, who joined the Nazi party in 1933, was the obvious
choice of arranger. Karajan duly restored the rhythmic monotony but the tune is still recognisable and it is now impossible to hear the symphony without thinking of his version and the likes of ‘President’ Barroso with his hand clutched to his chest. Thus, a sublime work has been excised from the repertory. This is probably the worst single act of vandalism committed in western Europe since the second world war.
Philip Roe
Herts
How to eat caviar
Sir: Further to Bruce Anderson’s entertaining piece on caviar (Drink, 15 September), may I offer readers further advice on how this delicacy is best enjoyed? As I used to be given several kilos each Christmas by a friend in Azerbaijan, I have had plenty of chances to experiment. No self-respecting Russian nor Azeri would have his caviar on toast, as the burnt taste can be overwhelming. White bread, fresh, with vast amounts of butter is the accepted way. Nor would any Russian contemplate garnish such as chopped ard-boiled egg, lemon or, God forbid, raw onion. Why ruin perfection? Best of all was their habit of eating clear fish soup through a teaspoon full of caviar. Hedonistic bliss. Regarding drink, the Russians do indeed eat caviar with vodka, not always ice-cold, but I have found that the driest of dry champagnes does the job even better.
James Butterwick
London W6
Preterite example
Sir: Philip Roe (letters, 22 September) notes a growing tendency to replace the participle by the preterite. This brought to mind one of my favourite operatic couplets, in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. When the witches have succeeded in deceiving Aeneas into leaving Carthage, Nahum Tate’s libretto has them cry out:
‘Our plot has took/ The Queen’s forsook!’
Noel Petty
Stockton-on-Tees
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