Red herrings in Siam
Sir; In his defence of the British Foreign Service (Letters, 18 June) and in particular of his tenure of the British Embassy in Bangkok, Sir Arthur de la Mare draws a couple of red herrings across the trail.
When I mentioned the relative decline in British trade with Thailand (very noticeable during Sir Arthur's time here), I did not say or even 'convey the impression' that this was due to the increase in Embassy staff. In fact I do not believe that the number of British commercial attaches affects the trade patterns either way.
Sir Arthur takes issue with my figure for the size of the British community here.! was using the figure for UK citizens, while Sir Arthur's much larger total includes British protected persons. Here they are mainly citizens of Hong Kong, with Hong Kong identity cards. Probably it was by the use of such statistics that Sir Arthur contrived to get the British Consulate in Chiang Mai
reopened, after an earlier review by the Foreign Office had led to its closure. It still remains open.
L. Pettigrew Pipet Court, Sol Pipet, Bangkok Thailand
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