With a faint feeling of satisfaction Winston laid the fourth message
aside. It was an intricate and responsible job and had better be dealt with
last. The other three were routine matters, though the second one would
probably mean some tedious wading through lists of figures.
Winston dialled 'back numbers' on the telescreen and called for the
appropriate issues of the Times, which slid out of the pneumatic tube after
only a few minutes" delay. The messages he had received referred to
articles or news items which for one reason or another it was thought
necessary to alter, or, as the official phrase had it, to rectify. For
example, it appeared from the Times of the seventeenth of March that Big
Brother, in his speech of the previous day, had predicted that...