Defending Marten
From Mrs Isla M. Atherley Sir: I was interested to read the letters from Mr Puckle and Mr Bernard Morton (June 10), about the behaviour of local Tory officials to their Member of Parliament, Mr Ronald Bell, on account of his anti-Common Market stand, 'because the same viciious persecution is being applied to my own MP, Mr Neil Marten. Mr Marten is being threatened with non-readoption unless fie toes the party line on the Common Market. He has great support in his constituency and increased his majority on his opposition to British entry at the last election. Like Mr Bell, he Is a man of honour and refuses to go back on his promises. In this they are both unlike Mr Heath, who has renounced everything he said on the Common Market at the last election. Mr Heath and the Central Office of the Tory Association are entirely unscrupulous and unprincipled in their determination to force this country, at all costs and with no mandate, into a continental bloc that seems destined to become the totalitarian Eurasia of George Orwell's 1984.
However, a development has arisen which may cause Tory officials to think again about refusing to re-adopt well-tried and well-respected men. The Chippenham Anti-Common Market Association have announced their intention to help finance Tory candidates refused re-adoption by their party, if they wish to fight the next election as Independent Anti-Common Market Tories. Let us hope this will bring Tory officials to their senses. We must also hope, of course, that the forty Tories who voted against British entry in October will recover sufficient courage to fling out •this iniquitous European Bill that strikes at the root of parliamentary government and deprives the British people of their inalienable right to self-determination.
Isla M. Ather/ey Hazel Cottage, Charlbury, Oxford
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