16 MARCH 1985, Page 22

Letters

Rotten Apples

Sir: Richard Body's breathtaking advocacy of British withdrawal from the Atlantic Alliance (3 March) needs a follow-up in your columns. Soviet Russia, we are told, never attacks or interferes with neutral countries but merely waits for 'rotten apples' to fall. Could Richard Body be asked to hint at which democratic countries are 'rotten apples' today? For, in these cases at least, a policy of neutralism could not, on Body's own admission, be safely recommended; and it would be reassuring to learn that Body's 'rotten apple' status is not just awarded post facto to countries that have already been made part of the Soviet Empire.

Christopher R. Brand

71 South Clerk Street, Edinburgh