SIR: As a former Far East POW I agree in principle with the personal view of your correspondent, W D Harris and I must say that over the years I have become rather bored with ex POWs who have sworn that they will "never eat rice again" or " never buy a Japanese car/TV/radio or any other piece of equipment manufactured by our former tormentors. We do live in the real world and we have to get the best value for the money which we earn. Therefore, in the 1960s when most British cars were failing to pieces and were, by and large, unreliable, it was in my interest to buy the most dependable vehicles within my budget, and if these happened to be Japanese, so be it.

There are, even as I write this letter, representations to the Japanese Government for some form of compensation for former FEPOWs, and in my view this is a vain hope but, if it's forthcoming, I for one will accept it. There are so few of us left that very soon the total cost of such compensation will be minimal, so my suggestion to HM Government would be as follows: You sacrificed about 150,000 servicemen to three and a half years of Hell due to incompetence, lack of foresight and inferior leadership so why not compensate the remnants of your blunder now and claim the money diplomatically from the Japanese? Maybe the Foreign Office would move a little faster if they were rec?laiming Government money.

Why should we be concerned if the Japanese lose "face" in the event of an apology? I see absolutely no reason why, as a nation, they should not be humiliated by learning a little more of their recent history.

H W Dewhurst

Island Close, Staines, Middlesex

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