The tragedy of Biafra
Sir: It must relieve the 'sadness' of your correspondent Mr John Smith (Letters, 31 January) to realise that, in spite of 'the bitter partisan spirit of your leader' and a wide- spread feeling in this country, General Gowon has three loyal supporters in Mr Wilson, Mr Stewart and Lord Hunt who are willing to believe every statement he makes and credit all his promises.
If the General acted with less animosity against the religious and lay people who (pace Mr W. Wyatt) have given devoted and unrewarded service to-his brothers (his own words) and saved the lives of numerous children and aged people, then his televised and much publicised generosity might be more impressive. 'But what do his three chums hope to gain by supporting him through thick and thin? It is to be hoped that the good General does not have to echo the words of the illustrious African of long ago when he exclaimed `Urbem venalem etc . .
Diarmid Brogan 4 Advie Place, Glasgow s2 Sir: In your editorial (31 January) you say that 'for Britain, the lesson of Nigeria is plain', but for some reason you do not draw the most obvious conclusions from the facts.
It is a fact that the population of Africans in Rhodesia has increased by one thousand per cent in seventy years, and it is a fact that Africans in Nigeria are dying of starvation at the rate of one thousand daily. It is a fact that General Gowan is deliberately restrict- ing relief for political reasons and that charitable workers such as priests and nuns have been arrested, jailed and fined in Nigeria; in Rhodesia the people who are jailed are usually terrorists—sorry, freedom fighters—who admit to having received train- ing in guerrilla warfare from the commun- ists and whose declared intention is to des- troy the Rhodesian regime by violence. It is also a fact that the British government is carrying out a policy of sanctions against Rhodesia, has supplied many of the arms which made the Nigerian tragedy possible, and is prepared to minimise accounts of the suffering which its policy has caused in both countries.
The lesson of Nigeria is indeed plain, and when we compare the relative situations in Nigeria and Rhodesia the lesson becomes plainer still. The white supremacists have been proved right and the 'liberals' who advocate African majority rule have been proved wrong.
Donald M. Bowers Cameron Hospital, Windygates, Fife
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