25 SEPTEMBER 1999, Page 42

Vanishing tin

From Mr James Forsyth Sir: I would like to take up the challenge that Alan Walters lays down in his article on the IMF ('Let's put the IMF out to grass', 18 September) to name an interna- tional institution that has been wound up. The International Tin Council was wound up in the 1980s having defaulted on its financial obligations. As the creditors know, it vanished, like the Cheshire cat, without a legal trace. The League of Nations provides an earlier, if more debat- able, example in that some legal continuity can be claimed. Not so the International Tin Council. I claim the champagne.

James Forsyth

38 Well Walk, London NW3