MAY I suggest that Mr D Pearson, who objected to the allocation of lottery money to Third World countries (Letters, January 16), petitions Virginia Bottomley, the minister responsible for deciding on the distribution of lottery funds, to drop this category from the list.

On a different issue, I would also be interested in his comments on Conservative leader John Major's recent statement to the Commons that the number of murders had fallen since the abolition of the death penalty.

G SMITH, Bold Street, Blackburn.

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