15 SEPTEMBER 1990, Page 30

Fons et origo

Sir: Mr Andrew Alexander's opinion that someone of foreign origin is unlikely to have the same feeling as we do for our history and institutions, reported and con- demned by Mr Alexander Chancellor as creepy and awful (Diary, 1 September), is far worse: it's disloyal. Did Mr Alexander not reflect that the family that has occupied St James's and Buckingham Palaces has been of foreign origin since 1603? And not even from the British Isles, indeed mainly from what is now Germany, since 1689? He seems to follow the Fleet Street tradi- tion that, during the war proclaimed, while the Dowager Queen Mary (of Teck) was still living, the only good German was a dead German.

Tactless, to say the least.

Charles Fyffe

52 Holmdale Road, London NW6