At the time of the Pinochet coup Richard Gott was reporting for the Guardian and Harald Edelstam was the Swedish ambassador in Santiago de Chile. Edelstam played a major rôle in spiriting out of the country people who had much to fear from the attentions of the Pinochistas.

This phrase in Gott's despatch struck me greatly at the time, and the name `Edelstam' stuck in my mind too. (Surely that word must mean something like `noble root'?) I have never forgotten either of them, and i am quoting this text from memory — after more than fifty years. It may not always be easy to do the right thing, but Gott is right: it can sometimes be very easy to see what the right thing is to do.

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