MR M Pittock is quite correct when he says that there are degrees of killing.

But I will never allow him to get away with comparing the Holocaust - with its five years of torture, deprivation, degradation and death - with an event that, no matter how horrific, was a three-day attempt to save lives by ending the war abruptly. This saved many thousands of allied troops.

The horrors of the atom bomb were eventually realised by the USA, the USSR and the UK, and whether such as Mr Pittock agree or not, their possession kept the peace in Europe for over 50 years.

The bombing of Japan was a response to many years of brutality. Mr Pittock claims that war itself is a crime. Perhaps he would tell us how many would have died in the Holocaust without our intervention - 20-30 million? Think of your own figure and the Nazis would have exceeded it.

The extended Third Reich would have included the UK. Even Breightmet! Mr Pittock could have comforted himself by knowing that the League of Nations would have told the Nazis that they were acting contrary to international law. They were, like a lot of people, very good with words.

We have been told for many years to forget the Holocaust and get on with our lives. Why don't the CND do that with the atom bomb? The fact that seems to escape them is that, in the African continent, small arms - weapons of individual destruction such as pistols, rifles, hand grenades and two-inch mortars - have killed and continue to kill so many people as to make the 150,000 estimated deaths by the atom bombs seem, if not insignificant, at least commonplace.

Might I suggest to Mr Pittock that he takes his CND coalition and organises relief convoys for the refugees in the Sudan.

F Isherwood

Latham Road

Blackrod