28/07/05

I served in Palestine from 1946 to 1948, a campaign against terrorists which, over the years, has never been mentioned in TV programmes, documentaries, etc.

Cyprus, Aden, Kenya are all events mentioned after the Second World War, but never Palestine, something the government made a mess of before and after the mandate over Palestine came to an end in May 1948.

At the Arboretum in Staffordshire there is a memorial to the RAF Regiment in which I served, naming all the campaigns the regiment took part in after the Second World War, but Palestine is not mentioned.

Why, we ask? We get negative answers so the lads from Egypt are not the only ones forgotten. - H Reed, Durham.

CARAVAN PARK

I TOTALLY agree with Ray Vincent (HAS, June 25) regarding Redcar Beach Caravan Park.

This has been a caravan park for more than 40 years and Redcar and Cleveland Council's attempts to destroy people's future on this park is nothing short of a downright disgrace.

Lido Leisure, who lease the park, informs all caravan owners that the Coatham Enclosure development would not infringe on the caravan park.

And many people on the park were informed by Ian Hopley, projects manager for Redcar and Cleveland Council, that this proposed development would not infringe on the park in any way and if at any time in the future any new development plans were drawn up that would involve the park, then all caravan owners would be consulted at all stages.

Never at any time has anyone on the caravan park been consulted in any way, shape or form.

The council should be ashamed of its tactics in the treatment of these people. - J Whitfield, Darlington.

KINDNESS REMEMBERED

IN June 1940, I left the beach at Dunkirk in a small boat which took me to a ship, which had recently carried sheep. Twenty four hours later the train I was in pulled into a station, which, by the accents of the people on the platform, I guessed to be Newcastle.

We were put onto a smaller train which puffed its way through the countryside, eventually stopping at a small station where an Army officer and red-capped military policeman asked me to line the men up.

There was a crowd on the platform and I was given a pencil and ordered to record each soldier's name and with whom he was going as a guest.

These folk were the folk of Consett, who were taking in men who had not had their boots off for about ten days, were dirty and unshaven and who had suffered bombing and strafing on the beaches of Dunkirk.

A young police constable came along and said: "You had better come with me Sergeant". I did, and he took me home and introduced me to his wife and showed me their new baby.

In a very short while I was in a warm, scented bath, my clothes had disappeared and when I had finished bathing and shaving, the policeman came with pyjamas, dressing gown and slippers.

As the policeman was about six feet tall and I was five feet seven inches, I looked and felt like something out of a fairytale. Anyway, it gave us a laugh.

I was called in to breakfast but was surprised that we were not eating together. The lady said that they had eaten earlier. It was not just a breakfast it was a magnificent feast.

Unfortunately, my stay was short-lived as I was called back to duty. I left in a uniform that had been washed and ironed. I felt like a soldier again.

Some days later I realised why they had not eaten with me: they had given me their week's ration of bacon and eggs.

I will always remember the policeman and his wife and the people of Consett for their kindness and generosity. - John Bennett, Captain Royal Welsh Fusiliers, Essex.

ID CARDS

I WILL have to produce convincing evidence of my identity and pay £300 to get an ID card.

Then in five or ten years (ministers are giving conflicting information) I will have to produce convincing evidence of my identity and pay £300 (it will probably be more by then) to get a new card because the old one will no longer be proof of my identity - if it is why do I need to replace it?

Why do I feel I have missed something somewhere? - Brian Fiske, Vice Chairman, Darlington Liberal Democrats.

BUS STATION

I WAS really pleased to read Mike Amos's plea for a bus station in Darlington (Echo, July 20). Everyone I have spoken to thinks we need one - a safe, pleasant place to stay when travelling.

The council says the bus companies don't want one, but the people of Darlington want a bus station. - S Dunstone, Darlington.

EDWARD HEATH

I REMEMBER Sir Edward Heath as a powerful political figure and good public speaker.

When asked for his views on the Conservatives' 1966 General Election defeat, Mr Heath, with some humour, replied: "I believe that because the Labour Government has been in office for just 17 months, the electorate has given it a further term of trial - and error".

The 1970-74 Conservative administration was in office at a time of great industrial unrest, but Prime Minister Heath was proud of the fact that during that period there were no Government resignations.

The interesting thing about the February 1974 General Election, which Heath had called on the issue "Who Governs?" - the Government or the unions - was that he had been urged to go to the country by a Conservative-supporting daily national paper with its regular assurances of a handsome Tory majority.

Unfortunately for Mr Heath, it did not work out like that and the election was lost. - LD Wilson, Guisborough.

MIDDLE EAST

ISN'T it reassuring when Mr Blair states that 99 per cent of Muslims are law-abiding citizens.

He could just have easily said that 99 per cent of Christians are equally law abiding.

It doesn't take a genius to work out that among the one per cent of renegade Muslims there are those who hate us so much they are prepared to blow themselves to bits for an act of revenge.

In the Middle East there are those who feel that the Christian Bush and Blair are part of the Christian one per cent who are prepared to kill thousands of innocent Muslims.

As usual it is the ordinary citizens in the Middle East and now London who are suffering.

There is no easy answer to the problems of the Middle East but surely it is related to the Palestine-Israeli conflict and has now spread to Iraq and Afghanistan, destabilising the whole Middle East.

Military withdrawal is now essential and apparently this is now on the agenda of the US and ourselves. - Hugh Pender, Darlington.