IN his reply to Dave Heaton (Letters, September 20) questioning the 'hypocrisy' of Margaret Thatcher's 'official' meeting with Nelson Mandela, Walt Meadows (Letters, October 17) points out that during most of Mrs Thatcher's time in office "Nelson Mandela was languishing in jail as a prisoner by choice," and that all Mr Mandela had to do "to obtain his freedom was to renounce violence as a means of obtaining a political solution."

Oh, really, Mr Meadows? If Hitler had conquered Britain during the war of 1939-45, and you had found yourself behind bars as a political prisoner, would you have 'renounced violence' as a means of obtaining a solution to the question of political oppression?

BILL ELLIOTT, Bloomington, Indiana, USA.

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