SIR, _ . Mr . J. H. Prevett in the main body of his
letter has expressed the most admirable and objective sentiments regarding the pay- ment of blood money but his final paragraph, where he refers to the " alarming tendency tv
° seek precedents as a defence for wrong
p. olicies," is so worded to make it seem as if !lie practice has only recently grown .up. In fact practice Colonial Secretary and other Government speakers have availed themselves of what is a long-standing Parliamentary practice and not a one-party act. Furthermore, it is no figment of the Imagination that Ministers' pointing to the parallel shortcomings in office of their pre- decessors stifles effective opposition; it is a fact, Particularly when the predecessors are -"gaged in the opposition. If the practice
had not been of real use in times past it would have died out long ago.
I do not pretend to support such behaviour. If a precedent is to be invoked, let it be a good one, but let the whole body of politicians, not just one section of it, cease quoting bad ones.—Yours faithfully,
N. H. SHEPHERD 59 York Mansions, Battersea Park, S.W.11 [This correspondence is now closed. Editor, Spectator.]
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