SIR: I refer to the Suez Crisis. Of course your correspondent D Summers is right (BEN, April 7) and I was wrong. I accept his rebuke. At the time of the Suez cease-fire, November 4, 1956, Sir Anthony Eden was still Prime Minister. By the time the withdrawal negotiations were underway, he was on sick leave in Jamaica, and it is probable that he did not resume the full duties of his office between his return from Jamaica and his formal resignation early in January, 1957. The medical bulletin of the four specialists issued at the time made it clear that Eden had almost certainly been a sick man for some time previously.

The conversation I referred to was between Eisenhower and Eden. MacMillan was then Chancellor of the Exchequer, and it was in that capacity that he advised Eden that Britain had no option but to comply, leading to the contemporary jibe that Macmillan was "last in, first out at Suez." I accept that even politicians should be careful with the details. However, the main point I sought to make, was that now, as then, economic factors limit and constrain the exercise of political sovereignty. This observation is not invalidated by the inaccuracy of a minor detail in the narrative.

Cllr Peter D Johnston,

Kendal Road, Bolton

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