14 APRIL 1984, Page 24

Secrets for all

Sir: Geoffrey Strickland's article (`The torture lesson', 17 March) includes a familiar misconception when he says I was warned that, although I had never signed the Official Secrets Act, I was liable to prosecution under it ... ' So indeed is

everyone else, since it is the law of the land, not a contract with individuals, and its scope is not limited to those who have authorised access to official information. If such people — I was for 40 years one of them — are required from time to time to sign pieces of paper confirming their awareness of this law, and its applicability to their work, that is simply in order to bring home to them their responsibilities under it.

Michael Cullis

County End, Bushey End, Hertfordshire