Sir : Does Mr Waugh (27 December) really feel that
Nigeria should accept all the blame for the war? lf, as Mr Waugh claims, . . everybody has the right to determine their own nation- hood' . . . then surely Wales or Scotland has the right to declare independence without any regard to the Union of the British Isles.
To say that the mercy corridor is only a sop may be true, but it is also true that the Biafrans refused the corridor because they thought the Federal troops might take advantage of it. Thus they are in some measure responsible for the mass starvation which is accruing.
The assertion that non-Ibo tribes do not want Ibo domination has been slightly hinted at by the fact that in retreating the Biafrans are taking with them people of the region that they are evacuating—but Mr Waugh mentions nothing of this.
The fact that some African states have recog- nised Biafra stems from the nature of the atrocities rather than from their grasp of the danger of tribalism. Mr Waugh seems to have no idea what chaos would be caused among the tribal elements in Nigeria if Biafra became in- dependent. There is nothing more terrible than tribal factions. The clock would be put back a hundred years.
Ian R. Wilson St Joseph's Cottage, Sonning Common, Read- ing, Berks
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