Graham
Greene, Yours etc. Letters to the Press,
Christopher Hawtree, ed. (London: Reinhardt Books, 1989), p. 8.
News Chronicle/15 March 1948
Incident
in Prague
--
I have received a press cutting of 'John Bouverie's Journal'
for
27 February and for pure curiosity I should like to know
whether
this Journal comes under the heading of fiction [the
story
also appeared in the Daily Herald's 'Chanticleer'
column].
Under the heading Czech-mate there is a paragraph
dealing
with me of which the only accurate statement is that
I
happened to be staying in the Alcron Hotel. As far as I know
the
Alcron did not pass from private into public ownership, I
am
certainly unaware of ever having been served by a
Communist
waiter who had been appointed national
administrator,
and I was not lecturing for the British Council.
Do
satisfy my curiosity about this Journal.
Bouverie
had written, 'A guest in Prague's most ambitious
hotel, the Alcron, when it passed yesterday from private into public ownership,
was novelist Graham Greene, who is in Prague
at the moment to lecture for the British Council. He looked for his Communist waiter. He had been appointed
national administrator.'
