19 FEBRUARY 1994, Page 25

Fighting talk

Sir: There was another reason for Macmil- carried out some air strikes on the Ian's dislike of my godfather Rab Butler (`Centenary of a double-crosser', 5 Febru- ary). George Hutchinson, who worked for Macmillan while he was prime minister, told me that Macmillan always held it against Butler that he had never fought in the first world war, apparently unimpressed by the fact that Butler was at school at Marlborough, aged 15, when the war ended.

Simon Courtauld

Inglewood Lodge, Kintbury, Newbury, Berkshire