longer SIR: Why do the press, including the BEN, continue to call female sailors Wrens? Are you not aware that the WRNS, from which the name derived, ceased to exist in 1993? I marked the sad day by composing an ode published on Tuesday, March 10.

My expressed forebodings have been realised. How the gutter press enjoy detailing incidents arising from women at sea! I dread to think what will happen when an H.M.Ship with women aboard goes into action.

?B W Tyas Cooper

ex-Lieut R.N.V.R.

(Name and address supplied)?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.