Noblesse Oblige

Little Father Lenin was having a tough time of it. In 1942, the Finsbury Borough Council had erected a statue to Russia's First Proletarian in front of the Holford Square house in which he had once lived. Since then, the dead-white bust on its red marble base has had nary a moment's peace. Time & again it has been defaced--once with black paint of such tenacity that the slyly benign features remained permanently piebald.

Then, on a gloomy midnight last December, especially irreverent and irresponsible vandals went to work on the bust with a hammer. Result: no nose, a gouged-out chin, a scar on the left cheek, a chewed-off ear. This, the London constabulary decided, was too much of a good thing. The memorial was covered with a huge black tarpaulin and three bobbies detailed to perpetual guard duty.

Last week, Tory M.P. William Shepherd rose in Commons. Asked he: "Is it not a waste of three policemen's time? Lenin lived in the house only about a fortnight and he left without paying his rent.* Cannot the Home Secretary get this bust put in an institution?"

Replied Home Secretary James Chuter Ede, with simple dignity: "No, sir, there are many statues in London which give rise to acute controversy. . . . We have to live and let live in these matters."

Said Tory M.P. Sidney Shephard: "Is it not a fact that this statue is covered by a tarpaulin and cannot be seen by the public?"

Said Ede: "It is a great pity that some of the other monstrosities [in London] are not similarly treated."

* Not so; a libel, declared Finsbury's Town Clerk.

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