"A piece of impudence," cried tall, gimlet-eyed Lord Vansittart, 68, in Britain's House of Lords last week. Bristling with rage, the onetime (1930-38) Permanent Under Secretary of the Foreign Office told his peers how the Soviet news agency Tass ("a nest of guttersnipes") had wriggled out of a libel suit filed by Vladimir Krajina, Czech refugee and onetime resistance fighter. The Soviet Embassy had declared Tass a state organ (TIME, July 11), and a British court had no choice but to grant diplomatic immunity to Tass, which had accused Krajina of being a traitor. Krajina's last resort was to appeal to...
The Press: Polecat Hunt
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