2 JULY 1988, Page 24

Casualties of war

Sir: Lord Deedes (`My Munich', 4 June) might be interested to know that, soon after Chamberlain left for Bad Godesberg, I was asked to represent the students at an emergency meeting of department heads at my London teaching hospital.

Whitehall had telephoned to say that the talks with Hitler had broken down, that war was probably imminent, and that air raids would then start at once, causing 40,000 casualties every 24 hours in London — a figure based on those in the Spanish civil war.

Dr A.A.G. Lewis

Wisteria Cottage, 2 Brook Street, Oxfordshire