7 JUNE 1997, Page 32

Sir: Bruce Anderson writes, without the quotation marks, 'we all

know, surely, that the first world war was fought by a British army of lions led by donkeys'. Do we all know? And does Bruce Anderson mean to tell us that he accepts this specious general- isation? The commander of the British forces on the Western Front was Haig. Is Anderson 'surely' inferring that that great 'Janine, ask your secretary's PA's secretary's PA's secretary to bring in the report on overmanning.' man was a donkey? Haig was a lion. The jackals have been trying to pull him down.

Michael Alexander

48 Eaton Place, London SW1

Bruce Anderson replies: I was being ironic. As I hope I subsequently made clear, I emphatically do not believe that Haig was a donkey.