Sir: Auberon Waugh doubts whether Sal- man Rushdie, who has
insulted the British people and police, deserves their protec- 'I may not be able to sell your book, but I may be able to get you on a list of signatures on a letter to the Times.' tion. I wonder, then, whether Mr Waugh, who devotes much of his career to doing the same, would feel he was being fairly treated if he were in need of police help and the local nick showed him his dossier and said, 'Sorry, mate.'
Mr Waugh calls the Muslims shrieking for Mr Rushdie's head 'his own people'. I take it, then, that Mr Waugh would consid- er a mob of Sun-reading football hooligans his own people — they are, after all, English and white.
Finally, Mr Waugh asserts that safe- guarding Mr Rushdie is too expensive and compares the cost to that of a scarce medical resource. I did not think that we were paying merely to protect Mr Rush- die's person but to defend our liberty against a foreign tyrant. What price does Mr Waugh put on British honour?
Rhoda Koenig
34 Sinclair Road, London W14
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