16 APRIL 1994, Page 30

Spy in the sky

Sir: After his chat with Pierre Marion at the Café Fiore ('When spies mean business', 9 April), Alasdair Palmer reports his claim that 'we used to bug Air France'. He does not, however, appear to have learned from France's former spy chief who his paymas- ters were prior to his joining France's equivalent of MI6. Marion was in fact Air France's senior man in Japan in the late 1960s, after which he was rewarded with a promotion to Directeur General Commer- cial in Paris, the airline's top marketing executive. His later responsibilities after leaving Air France appear to have repre- sented a logical career progression.

Denis Sadleir

14 Royal Crescent, Bath