Sir,

The country is in financial meltdown, manufacturers are going out of business, unemployment is spiralling, the housing market no longer exists, the British Army is committed to being engaged in other people's wars - the list is endless and matched only by the awesome changes in climate. But a far more controversial issue is now raising its ugly head within the confines of your ever-popular columns headed 'Readers Letters'!

The apparently vital question raising its ugly head is 'Did Haile Selassie stay on Caldey Island, or did he not?' A subject seemingly of paramount importance to some of your more well-established veteran contributors, one of whom tells us he is now 89. And the others must either be of similar vintage or otherwise quoting from the history books.

I am sorry, but I am missing the point here. Is this really an issue worth the risk of working yourself into a stroke about? As a teenager in the 1930s, I was then well acquainted with the misfortunes of Haile Selassie and Co, all of which paled into insignificance with the outbreak of WW2 in 1939 when I then became a member of HM Forces for six years and heard no more of poor old H.S. until he was recently resurrected by Readers Letters in such a controversial manner.

A slightly more contemporary argument of similar consequence is still unresolved - namely, does Elvis Presley actually live on Caldey Island? Well I suppose it helps to take your mind off matters of greater concern!

Frederic G. Morton

(Quite old, but not

yet grumpy!),