BENCH AND BAR SIR,--Messrs. Blom-Cooper and McEwen have missed the
main point of my article, which was not, as they seem to think, to question the fact that there are many distinguished members of the legal profession in favour of penal reform. On the con- trary, this was one of the things I emphasised (all Messrs. Blom-Cooper and McEwen have done is to tabulate their names). The point, rather, was to ask who among them, outside as well as inside Par- liament, was ever prepared to take a firm, public stand against the sillier suggestions of their more reactionary colleagues—suggestions which receive widespread publicity and, in my judgment, do im- mense harm. Messrs. Blom-Cooper and McEwen describe my views as 'absurd extravagance,' but do they themselves think it absurd extravagance when, for instance, Lord Kilmuir says that anyone who believes that an innocent man can be hanged is moving in the realms of fantasy, or Lord Goddard proposes that insane murderers should be destroyed? And if they do not think such suggestions absurd extravagance, I invite them to tell us what they do think about them.
Piers Place, A mersham. Bucks LUDOVIC KENNEDY PS: I must apologise for my delay in answering, due to absence from this country.
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