11 JANUARY 1957, Page 17

SIR,—TI was to be expected that Mr. Jdsman's letter would

provoke a loud if confused response from our so-called patriots—a response which deserves all too well the characteristics of 'irrelevancy, ignorance, rudeness and suggestio falsi' ascribed by Mr. Pickard to Mr. Jdsman. What is interesting about these letters is that none of them denies Mr. Jdsman's case; rather do they confirm it.

Mr. Murray-Brown's letter is a chunk of vitupera- tive guesswork which needs no answer and which throws plenty of light on his own character, none on that of Mr. Jesman. What he describes as 'pander- ing to the susceptibilities of the Egyptian peasantry' might just as well be described as 'mere good manners and consideration for the feeling of others.' Should we consider other people less because they happen to be either Egyptian or peasants?

Doris Davy has a tiny little point about exclusive- ness in clubs. but her analogy with literary or philo- sophical clubs denying membership to footballers or boxers is sadly off the mark. If one literary club depended for its existence on the forbearance of a mass of footballers, it might be tactful at the very least to elect a few of them to membership, and— who knows?--perhaps thus to interest them in litera- ture! If Mrs. Davy assumes that the gulf between British and Egyptian officers is equal to that between philosophers and boxers, she is begging the whole question of whether Egyptians should in fact be treated with such contempt.

Mr. Pickard is rash in denying even 'potential equality' to the Egyptians. Who is he to prophesy? The Muslims helped to civilise Western Europe in the Middle Ages, and perhaps will one day do so again. His contention that the Egyptians 'have at no time during the last hundred years contributed any- thing of value to the world' would be more convinc- ing if be gave us his credentials for making a verdict which covers the whole of Egypt's social and cultural history in that period. In any case, is it relevant? If I may use Mrs. Davy's distorting-analogy technique, did Mr. Pickard send a Christmas card to Mr. Khrushchev on account of Tolstoy and Dostoievski?

All three correspondents seem convinced of a vast innate superiority of the British over the Egyptians. To this Mrs. Davy ascribes the fact that the British have not committed any atrocities like the Moorhouse murder against the Egyptians; some might think the fact that Egypt has not invaded Britain a more cogent explanation. She should consult the preface to John Bull's Other Island. If we are indeed so superior, one might have hoped that we would be less susceptible to our 'ordinary, primitive emotions' than the ignorant and impoverished Egyptians; and that our failure to rise above 'the habit of all Service men in any foreign country at all times' would be a matter of regret to true patriots, and not of satisfaction as displayed by Mr. Murray-Brown.—Yours faithfully,

FREDERICK MURPHY

6 Orchard A venue, Whetstone, London, N20