IREAD recently of an asylum-seeker who, trying to leave this country, was chased inside the Channel Tunnel and brought back. Another was jailed for six months for trying to do the same thing.

The same day I read of two Sikh terrorists who have been helped to stay in Britain by a group who will gain a further £340,000 from Lottery funding, bringing the total grants they have received from this source to £723,000.

I also read that the white farmers who are being driven off their land in Zimbabwe are finding it extremely difficult to regain their British passports.

We are betraying these people who need our help and are ignoring the pleas of Gibraltarians to remain British, but illegal immigrants and terrorists are given homes and handouts at the taxpayers' and lottery participants' expense.

I am involved with Blackburn Sea Cadets and they have tried in vain for lottery funding to enable them to provide buildings and facilities where youngsters can be gainfully occupied and trained to become responsible adults.

Maybe if they asked for funds to use the unit headquarters as a shelter for illegal immigrants they would be more successful.

EILEEN EASTHAM, Milton Close, Darwen.