7 MAY 1965, Page 14

Britain's Role

SIR.—I have read with interest Mr. Peter W. S. Johnson's letter (in your issue of April 30) on Mr. Macleod's article. He may be right in interpreting the present international conflicts as an old-style power struggle; but are the 'cracks in the Red façade' as significant as he chooses to make them? In 1939 the German-Soviet pact quickly disposed of the hostility between the Reich and the USSR.

The problem of peace is a problem of balance of power—however old-fashioned the word may sound. If the nations of the western world drift apart, the danger is obvious.

P. BARATIER

Avenue de la Care, Meximieux, Ain, France