I ENDORSE C A Bakewell's view (Letters, January 16) that the British soldiers executed for alleged cowardice in World War One should have their names cleared and recognised as sufferers from shell-shock - which the generals and other officers, too, might have suffered from, had they been under the same conditions as the soldiers they led from the rear.

The appalling conditions under which soldiers had to exist for long periods in France, have never since been equalled. For the sheer grinding, prolonged living hell where hundreds were trapped and drowned in the churned-up mud and deep, water-filled shell-holes was only one of the many hazards facing them as they were ordered to go "over the top."

Another was the day-and-night bombardments.

In these somewhat enlightened times where counselling is available for people who have been subjected to much less physical and mental trauma, it should be recognised what these innocent soldiers went through.

Mr Major should do something honourable and useful - acknowledge that these soldiers were not cowards but just ordinary men who could not stand up to the unlimited stress to which they were subjected and help to clear their names.

ALBERT MORRIS, Clement View, Nelson.

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