13 MAY 2000, Page 26

From Mr Tom Massey Lynch Sir: Anne Applebaum reports elegantly

on the lack of official emotion following her taking on our nationality, with the percep- tive suggestion that only a fundamentally stable country would offer such indiffer- ence. This sounded familiar to me. In Brus- sels in 1945 British and Dominion prisoners returning from the Oflags and Stalags were sorted out. On arrival we met notices and banners: 'Canada welcomes you back', `Well done, New Zealanders', 'Australia is proud of you'. The British notice read, `You are reminded that you are still under military discipline'.