5 JULY 1957, Page 28

TELEPHONE TAPPING Sm,—My telephone was, as Mr. Richards points out,

tapped in 1954. On May 23 this year, some weeks before the question was publicly raised, I learned from a private source that Scotland Yard's Special Branch was still keeping a 'routine' watch on my line. My immediate complaint to the telephone authorities brought a courteous assurance that this was not being done with the knowledge and co- operation of the GPO. During the last three years I have found out that solicitors in criminal practice took it for granted that the Home Secretary will give permission for tappijag in cases which the Director of Public ProsecuticA is anxious enough to pursue. The legal profession has apparently been content to condone this practice until it was used against one of its own members.—Yours faithfully,