ABSTRACT
Isabel Brown, well known as a Communist speaker, and Katharine, Duchess of Atholl, a Conservative MP, were in the cafeteria at the House of Commons. The Duchess had suggested having tea together to discuss a rather sensitive issue. As members of the National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief, they had resolved never to use the platform of the NJC to further their own political ideas. Appearing as speakers together at meetings had proved very successful, the Duchess attracted those with money, and Isabel Brown was renowned for the amounts she could collect from a crowd. However, the Duchess frequently finished her talk by saying that the democratically elected government in Spain, ‘isn’t even a Red government’. Isabel Brown had been criticised by her ‘own people’ for appearing on a platform with someone who made remarks with such derogatory implications. She had decided to avoid further joint public appearances. When the Duchess discovered the reason Isabel Brown no longer wished to continue the successful pairing, she decided to try to put things right in the congenial and intimate atmosphere engendered by the presence of a teapot.
