1 NOVEMBER 1946, Page 15

Ste,—" Old Guard " suppression is the least effective sanction

against speech I know. Your correspondents must really draw a little on their own experience. Motives to silence, as to speech, are mixed. I can think of five better reasons why some Conservatives did not speak at Blackpool. Absence, indisposition, agreement with other speeches, disagreement and a desire to avoid confusion, deference to new delegates who had never before addressed a conference. Speculations on who failed to say what, and why, will only send your correspondents on fruitless errands.—Yours

House of Commons.