14 FEBRUARY 1981, Page 18

Lingua franca

Sir: Doesn't your article on "Ethnocide" in the Soviet Union' (24 January) a little resemble what Pravda might write about our pear destruction of the Welsh language? Surely any Empire has to impose a lingua franca? How is it that educated Indians (and Africans from our former colonies) all speak English? Scientific education demands a lingua franca – I imagine that it would be difficult to teach advanced physics in Welsh, and perhaps that applies to Ukrainian and ByeloRussian.

Graham Greene Antibes, S. France