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  Why didn't Robertson go to see Sokolovsky and say to him 'Look here,  old man,  you know perfectly well we can't leave just as YOU can't leave now,  so why not work it out together.'   That would have been the way to do it." 

  I had my hands full, keeping up with the lively barrage my few questions had unloosened.   Thanking him for his generosity,  I asked him whether I was not tiring him.   "No, not at all.   It does me good to have a chat.  Usually,  I don't give interviews.   I only answer questions sent in which can be answered in ten words,  but Ivor Montagu told me you were coming." 

  Taking advantage of my good fortune I continued,  "Whom do you consider the greatest statesman in the world today?"  There was not a moment's hesitation . "The greatest statesman...hmm. There are three great men living in the world today.  One of them is a great statesman."   And here he paused to give emphasis as he slowly and emphatically continued  "His name is Joseph Stalin. The second is a great mathemetician;  his name is Einstein.   The third one is a great playwright;  modesty forbids me to mention his name."  The last came out with the most delightful deadpan ever seen on a white-bearded Santa Claus. 

  "I was very honored," he went on,  "that when Joe Louis arrived in this country he said he wanted to meet two people ... Churchill and myself.   I was delighted that a man much more famous than myself should want to come to see me. 

  "As for Churchill, he certainly was a fine war leader,  imbued with the spirit of his great ancestor Marlborough.   He made wonderful recruiting speeches.   But then it is the easiest thing in the world to be Prime Minister in war time... politically at home Churchill couldn't run a village."   I interrupted to say that Sir John Boyd Orr had told me he regarded Churchill as an anachronism of the time of Queen Anne.  "Richard the Second...Richard the Second..."   Shaw boomed out. 

  We then went on to talk about the American scene and when I told him that people like Howard Fast and Dr. Edward Barsky had been given prison sentences,  he burst out  "It's persecution.   You know there has always been a racket against intelligence;  a racket by the lowbrows against the highbrows."