27 JUNE 1970, Page 23

Cricket, lovely cricket

Sir: Your correspondent who would appear to suggest that the high infant mortality rates among the black population of South Africa are the work of the government there, might be interested in the following statistics on the expectation of life in African countries, published by the United Nations. Unless otherwise stated, they are for African males at birth and are in years: Burundi 35, Cameroons 34.3, Central African Republic 33, Chad 29, Congo (Kinshasa) 37.64, Ghana 37.08, Kenya (both sexes) 40.45, Liberia 36.1, Zambia (both sexes) 40.

The United Nations gives the following figures for South Africa: Asiatics 57.7, Coloureds 49.62 and Whites 64.73. The latter figures, which exclude blacks, do not make good reading, but whom does your corres- pondent blame for the poor showing of Liberia, 'here the day-old boy can expect only 36,1 years of life: the Firestone Rubber Company or President Tubman? And does he blame Presidents Kenyatta and Kaunda that the babies of Kenya and Zambia can look forward to lives of 40.45 and 40 years respectively?

K.1. Wiggs 3 Hightail.) Road, Woodford Green, Essex