SIR: I refer to the letter from Cllr Peter D Johnson (BEN, June 27), and directed against Mr J Wilkinson (BEN, June 23).

Get your facts right Peter. Those who deal with them on a day to day basis will tell you that it is the Germans and French who have an attitude problem not us. James Goldsmith is a visionary who can see further than the end of his nose and he is to be applauded for his stance. Be that as it may, Europe is an ongoing debate. What I do find repugnant is this urge to bury the past. 'World War II was over 50 years ago' etc. As one of thousands of POWs in the Far East, I buried the past when I lowered some less fortunate comrades in bamboo coffins down into the ground. Furthermore, the resentment by J Wilkinson July 4, to your remarks is justified. He does a lot of welfare work for ex servicemen and sees the aftermath of war, even now. A war you know nothing about, and in a country that has the worst record of all the industrial nations for veterans welfare. In the USA there is a bond between the state and their ex servicemen that we do not have. To them the past matters.

The past is also important to my friend former master mariner Peter Elphick. The BEN did a splendid review of his last book 'Singapore The Pregnable Fortress', according to Peter at the time a better review than he got in many of the broadsheets. His latest work published by H & S in late August is titled 'Far Eastern File' and sub titled 'Far Eastern Intelligence War 1930-1945'. This completes a trilogy related to a shameful passage in our history. The first book was 'Odd Man Out, The Singapore Traitor'.

Finally, may I remind those who would rather forget, of the words on the Kohima War Memorial, 'When you go home tell them of us and say for your tomorrow we gave our today'.

Trevor T Mellows

Hughes Avenue, Horwich

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