SIR: Of course your correspondent B Howarth (BEN April 14) has every right to express a personal opinion on Freemasonry.

It is a pity that he seems so confused.

Having already referred to my reply to his earlier letter, he goes on to say that he has not heard from me since he wrote it!

And in referring to the Dunblane massacre, he repeats the allegation of "Masonic links" despite published denials that killer Thomas Hamilton was a Mason or in any way connected with Freemasonry.

Being of a generous nature, however, I shall assume he was unaware of the denials rather than ignoring them for his own purposes.

Norman Pickles

New Church Road, Smithills, Bolton

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