SIR, —Mr. Cyril Ray and others have had some harsh things
to say about British Railways cross-Channel services. The implication seems to be that the French do these things so much better.
Last Saturday I travelled on a French Railways car ferry from Calais to Dover. There was the usual queue of over-taxed English people for a limited range of duty-free tobacco and perfume. The change was thrust across the counter on a plate marked 'service not included.' What service? I have tipped in France in a wide range of places from cinemas to public lavatories because the custom of the country apparently requires it. I have never yet been asked
for a tip when buying cigarettes in France. Why, then, should the French Railways allow it to be demanded on a French ship unless they seek to foster the impression that the concession (small enough, thanks to the excessive retail margin) is theirs rather than the British Exchequer's?
Mr. Ray should have eaten in the ship's restaur- ant. If the soup did not come out of a packet, the chef ought to be ashamed of himself. The salad was limp and tasteless, and (something I never thought to see under the French flag) bottles of commercially produced 'mayonnaise' decorated every table. The price of the wine was dear enough to cause the occu- pants of my table to ask a surly waiter four times for water. We did not get it.
DUNCAN RUTTER
8 Worsbrough Village, Worsbrough Bridge, Barnsley, Yorkshire
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