26 FEBRUARY 1977, Page 16

Sir: Whatever the state of mind of Miss Anna M.endleson,

your rejection of Tory protests at her release ignores the effect on Ulster.

Ministers from both parties have tried to disabuse the IRA of the belief that convicted bombers and gunners will not serve their term. But the indulgence shown by the Home Secretary, Mr Merlyn Rees, who, as Northern Ireland Secretary, placed the Government's constancy in doubt by sanctioning cosy chats between civil servants and 'political commissars' of the Provos, undermines Mr Roy Mason's efforts to remove their lingering hopes of extracting, by terror, both amnesty and abdication.

We shall see the beginning of the end of terrorism only when it is clear to men who are by no means 'mindless' that, in Sir Robert Mark's words at the time of the Balcombe Street siege, they 'are going nowhere.'

John Biggs-Davison House of Commons, London SW1