7 FEBRUARY 1969, Page 28

Sir: Simon Raven's list of propositions (3 January) was incomplete.

Dominating every public discussion of this subject is the unvoiced proposition which might be phrased as follows: no white man wants his identity eliminated in black grandchildren. (I am talking about reproduction, not sex.) There is nothing either surprising or horrifying about this, and cer- tainly there is no moral question at issue. Every civilised people with a record of its past, a pride in its achievements and a belief in its future is necessarily self-conscious and to some degree—i.e., the degree necessary to ensure its physical and cultural distinction—exclusive.

Would you want your daughter to marry one? The question is, in fact, quite valid. It is the nifty gritty, the central question talked around but never about. When the English cease to care whether their daughters—or their sons—'marry one,' they will have ceased to regard themselves as in any way unique. The life-wish will have gone out of them. This is not inconceivable. Another generation of the kind of government and leadership England has had for the last two should accomplish it.

Incidentally, has anyone inquired into the coincidence between the first fruits of Britain's immigration policies and the rise of nationalism in Wales and Scotland? But then, even to raise such a question would be an impertinence. Wouldn't it?

Kevin Morris 90 64th Street, West New York, New Jersey, USA