Branson statue riddle
From Mrs Caroline Kirk Sir: Talking, as Mark Palmer was (`How to cut your train fare', 5 August), of air-rifle time at the sight of Richard Branson's bal- loon, my daughter also has a beef against that well-known entrepreneur. In the spring of 1999 my two daughters and I visited Coventry and wandered, in some awe, around the war-stricken old cathedral. In a prominent position we saw a statue labelled 'Peace' which bore the inscription: 'A repli- ca of this statue is to be seen in the Peace Park at Hiroshima. Donated by Richard Branson' (or words to that effect).
My elder daughter went to Japan a few months later. She went to Hiroshima, visited the Peace Park and looked in vain for the statue we had seen in Coventry Cathedral She asked an official where it might be found and, while the official knew exactly who Richard Branson was, she knew nothing of a statue donated by him to the Peace Park.
On her return to England, my daughter wrote to Richard Branson. She received a swift response telling her that, while he was too busy at the moment to reply to her let- ter in detail, the Great Man would do so at the earliest opportunity. Months went by. This spring she wrote again. She received an identical letter in reply.
Air-gun time, or what?
Caroline Kirk
Cavendish, Suffolk
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