13 JANUARY 1961, Page 13

SIR,—No one would claim that Dr. von Braun had as

sensitive a political conscience as one might ideally hope, but Miss Quigly refutes herself with her comparison. To perform a non-criminal act (making weapons) in aid of a had regime is naturally, and legally, and morally distinguishable from perform- ing a criminal one (giving death injections). A useful corrective to her overdone diatribe, and factual too, may be found in the description of von Braun's activities under the Nazis given in Rockets and Space Travel by Willy Ley, himself a German rocket scientist who took the other path, escaping in cir- cumstances of great danger when the Nazis started closing in..—Yours faithfully,