7 SEPTEMBER 1962, Page 14

S1R,—As a worker in VSO HQ I have the great

privilege and pleasure of corresponding with some scores of volunteers all over the world. So I was

partly amused and partly disgusted by the letter you printed from Mr. M. M. Elliott, who seems to be completely out of touch with VSO.

The attitude prevalent among present volunteers was expressed by the boy who wrote a week ago: This is probably the last letter I shall be writing from here and it is a good opportunity for me to say thank you to all the VSO person- nel for all their encouragement and advice, their interest throughout the project and above all for the opportunity of coming to

Africa. . Thank you all very much!

It is possible to pay deserved tributes to the pioneer work of Mr. and Mrs. Alec Dickson with- out denigrating their helpers and successors, who, as it happens, have their own full share of energy. sympathy and imagination. Mr. Elliott's sweeping charges, most of which I know to be untrue, could be damaging at a time when 250 new volunteers are going overseas: I submit that he ought either to substantiate them promptly to the VSO Council or else to withdraw them as publicly as he has made them.

E. F. G. HAIG Norfolk Cottage, Eversley, Hants