14 JULY 1973, Page 3

Sir: Mr Kevan Bleach (June 23) should read in full

the Stockport speech of Mr Enoch Powell, who drew a parallel with the occasion in 1886 when Chamberlain and his friends were prepared to vote with their lifelong Tory enemies rather than see the empire dismembered by Irish Home Rule. Mr Powell said there should be no misunderstanding: the UK Parliament would be reduced to " the status of a provincial and subordinate assembly" if Britain remained a party to the EEC within the present framework.

' Economic and monetary union' ef fectively meant unitary government and Mr PowellWould not conceal where his own counsel lay. "Independence, the freedom of a self-governing nation," was, in his estimation, " the highest political good, for which any disadvantage, if need be, and any sacri fice," were a cheap price. It was worth living for, fighting for and dying for. Could a politician speak more plainly?

L. M. Hopkins Wich Crest, Devizes, Wilts.