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DICTATED

7, AUDLEY SQUARE , W.1.

awkward days. Secondly, there as been a queer shindy at the B.B.C.,
in which somebody who appears to be somewhat neurotic brought a libel
action against Le nommé Levita, a L.C.C. Boss, who was mulcted in £7500
damages. A torrent of abuse and innuendo has fallen upon the B. B. C.,
so much so that the Government appointed a Committee of Enquiry, a sort
of Court of Honour, with Josiah Stamp as Chairman. I expect he found
the job more serious than he anticipated. Anyhow, he stuck it out and
has just issued a report in which he scolds everybody all round. He
was always pietistic, and a doctrinaire to boot. Anyhow, the aggrieved
fellow at the B. B. C. used to interest himself in a talking mongoose,
or at any rate got the reputation of doing so. You can imagine the
Londoner's interest in the mongoose case. London does not quite know
if it is a music-hall joke, or the name of a clown, or a style of charcuterie.
Anyhow, the "Daily Express" made us all laugh by sending a
special reporter to interview the creature in the Isle of Man. He
failed to locate the beast, though he alleged that the animal could
be heard rambling about behind the wainscoting of the farm-house at
1 a . m. And so the shindy proceeded. Hansard and the mongoose com-
pletely occupied our thoughts for two or three days. The Stamp -
Mongoose Report occupied 12 or 14 columns in the "Morning Post." Think
of it! And the public has revelled - one might almost say wallowed -
in all this farce and absurdity. There was almost a full-dress debate
in the House of Commons. It has been an innocent reaction from great-