A Diplomatic Exit

Quasi-British historical justice is alive and thriving among certain élite strata of the beastly Euro-wogs. Whereas on the mainland no real people are ever likely to suffer inconvenience over the murder of a post-colonial African statesman, in Belgium the one man to be charged in the case of the Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba has had the good taste to expire before any trial could take place. According to Britain's leading liberal newspaper, Lumumba's murder was a dark chapter in Belgium's colonial history, which until that unfortunate aberration had evidently been a model of humanity; at times perhaps even more so than Mr Churchill's great feeding time in Bengal. The late lamented was a viscount and junior diplomat in 1960-61, and was no doubt merely obeying orders. After a long and successful career subsequent to Lumumba's removal, he was promoted to count by the current occupant of the throne of Leopold II; the diplomatic timing of his demise should elevate him to posthumous marquis at the least.