1 APRIL 1955, Page 25

SIR,—Whatever one's political views might be, the fair-minded reader must

deplore the exag- gerated statement by your contributor, J. E. M.

Arden, when he refers to 'the surrounding and deportation of most of the minority nations of the North Caucasus and the Crimea.' Fr. Louis Luzbetak, SVD, an authority on the Caucasian peoples, isolates forty principal languages in the Caucasus alone. The only two peoples usually mentioned in connection with Russian mass-deportation are the Karachai, a group of Crimean Tartars, and the Chechen- ingusi from the Caucasus. I think it is fairly well established that these ethnic groups were moved for 'offences against the State.' but they certainly do not constitute the majority of the Caucasian or Crimean minorities. — Yours faithfully,