24 JUNE 1989, Page 25

Honourable exception

Sir: In The Spectator of 17 June ('Honour- able gentlemen') you quote me as writing:

It would have been better for China, as well as the students themselves, if they had dispersed voluntarily....

What I actually wrote was:

It may be that history will ultimately vindi- cate the prolonging of the demonstration, and that in China as elsewhere, the price of freedom is the'blood of the brave. But it may also be .that it would have been better for China, as well as for the students themselves, if they had dispersed voluntarily.

Your 'quotation' both misrepresented my meaning and introduced an illiteracy. Bruce Anderson

Assistant Editor, Sunday Telegraph, 181 Marsh Wall, London E14