20 JUNE 1992, Page 30

Only eight dictators

Sir: Alan Watkins flies wildly in the face of the truth, and is dangerously misleading, in describing the Commonwealth as 'substan- tially a collection of more or less corrupt dictatorships' (Diary, 16 May).

Of the Commonwealth's 50 member states, no less than 42 have very credible democratic systems and virtually all the rest are striving towards democratic forms of government, with elections being planned in Lesotho, Seychelles and Guyana this year.

Mrs Patsy Robertson

Director of Information, Commonwealth Secretariat, Marlborough House, Pall Mall, London SW1