19 JANUARY 1962, Page 14

JUSTICE IN JERUSALEM SIR,—Has it ever occurred to Telford Taylor

that judges, when acting in their official capacity, do not normally reach their decisions via personal specula- tions on situations and facts but by conscientiously interpreting and applying the exigencies of the law? The Nazis and Nazi Collaborators Law spells in clear and plain terms. Proof of the defendant's guilt is so extensive as to leave no doubts in anyone's right mind. Judgment has now been passed upon Adolf Eichmann and, unless Israel attempts to im- press world public opinion with an 'original' de- cision, the sentence shall be carried out. If the Israelis decided to display clemency in such a case, they would defy the very end which they claimed to pursue when Eichmann was captured and pre- sented with the most dignified of trials. To ask that a man's life be spared on account of the very mul- tiplicity of his crimes can hardly be regarded as a teaching of the most elementary and basic principles of justiciary praxis.

CLEMENT R. HALPON 114 Muswcll Hill Road, N10