19 MARCH 1948, Page 17

THE LIMITS OF LIBERTY

SIR,—In his article on Communism Mr. Brown asks " Must we in the name of liberty tolerate the activities of bodies bent on its destruction?" If we have any doubt as to the answer let us remember that John Stuart . Mill, that great protagonist of liberty, said with regard to the right of a man to sell himself into slavery, " The principle of freedom cannot require that he should be free not to be free." Faced with the circumstances ruling in Eastern Europe today, Mill surely would have declared that a community must not carry the doctrine of liberty to lengths that would result in its own enslavement.—Yours faithfully,

BERNARD E. HARRISON.

Middle Shield, Hexham, Northumberland.