WHAT'S this I see? The Lancashire Evening Telegraph actually stating that the Union flag is not the new mayor of Hyndburn's flag? For that is what the headline "Protest over mayor's flag" (LET, May 23) suggests.

That the mayor has origins in Pakistan means nothing - or should mean nothing, other than privately maintaining customs he wishes not to relinquish.

That the chief executive and council leader decided on this, shows scant regard for the feelings of British people, including Brits with origins in Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Hungary, Poland, China, etc who will, I am sure, be surprised to know that they may fly the flag of their country of origin on the town hall when officialdom decrees it.

To see supporters of various sporting events waving foreign flags in flagrant derision of British teams, when they purport to be citizens of this country, makes me seethe with indignation.

I suggest that each and every citizen of Great Britain be questioned and sworn in, and any that hold allegiance to a foreign flag be treated as visitors, for they cannot be British and should be accorded visitors' rights only.

Britain is a country of many, many people and has been for a thousand years, adopting even their languages (look at word origins in a dictionary) but we are, or should be, British and only British.

H GREEN, Somerset Road, Blackburn.

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