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announcement -- “You indicated you didn't really want to discuss them at this time, a point with which I readily agreed. And, in fact, I believe I said that next fall would be plenty of time to talk over this matter and help you get acquainted with the editors.”

Now, this is the key point of this memo: “When it developed some two weeks later” -- that means toward the end of April -- “When it developed some two weeks later through a leak, presumably from the third floor” -- which is the news department -- “that what you really had in mind was a purge of half the editorial board, I was naturally as shocked as my colleagues, perhaps more so, and immediately talked to you on the phone about the matter and followed that conversation with a memo that day, of which I also sent a copy to the publisher. Do you realize that that was literally the last time that you and I have spoken about this whole matter ...”

Remember, the date of this was May 24th, and I'm referring to a full month previously, April 26th. “Do you realize that was literally the last time that you and I have spoken about this whole matter, although God knows there have been many opportunities to do so. Instead, you chose to talk to my associates and God knows how many other people in England and elsewhere about the future of the editorial page, as it was of course your privilege, but never from that day, April 26th, to this” -- I repeat, the date of this memo is May 24th -- “have you made any effort at all to discuss with me a matter that was there and then disrupting the entire editorial board, destroying its morale, and making it almost impossible to get out an editorial page day by day.”

“Max, I had always thought of you as one of the most sensitive as well as probably the most brilliant of my colleagues in the upper echelons of the Times.” And here I'm going to