11 DECEMBER 1999, Page 42

Wrong verse

From Miss J. Greengrass Sir: Ignorance is not confined to the respon- dents to opinion pollsters (Shared opinion, 4 December). King Herod ordered the slaughter not of the first-born but of all chil- dren (male, presumably) in Bethlehem and the surrounding area, of two years old and under (Matthew ii 16). There appears to be confusion with the last plague of Egypt.

J. Greengrass 7 West View, Ormskirk, Lancashire