Shortly after the publication of __1984__, the New York __Daily News__
printed an article arguing it was an attack on the British Labour
government. In response, Orwell wrote a letter that was quoted in
several publications, in several versions. Per Davison, the original has
not survived but the probably most accurate version -- with a correction
Orwell specifically requested -- appeared in __The Socialist Call__ in
New York, July 22, 1949. It said:

"My recent novel '1984' is NOT intended as an attack on socialism, or on
the British Labor Party (of which I am a suporter) but as a show-up of
the perversions to which a centralized economy is liable and which have
already been partly realized in Communism and Fascism.

I do not believe that the kind of society which I described necessarily
will arrive, but I believe (allowing of course for the fact that the
book is a satire) that something resembling it could arrive. I believe
also that totalitarian ideas have taken root in the minds of
intellectuals everywhere, and I have tried to draw these ideas out to
their logical consequences.

The scene of the book is laid in Britain in order to emphasize that the
English speaking races [sic] are not innately better than anyone else
and that totalitarianism, if not fought against, could triumph
anywhere."

c/o MAB
--
j...@sirius.com