26 NOVEMBER 1983, Page 21

Sir: Like Auberon Waugh (12 November), I read the Tablet

religiously when Douglas Woodruff was the editor. It then had a splendid masthead motto. It deserves capitals: 'PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO

REGINA, ET PRO PATRIA'. What better expression could there be of the proper priorities of every English Catholic?

Tom Burns became the new editor almost surreptitiously. I remember no announce- ment of any change in policy. And the motto suddenly disappeared. And so too now have the Tablet's readers. We knew what the motto meant, as did Douglas Woodruff. And we knew what its disap- pearance meant.

John Braine

15 New End, London NW3