The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 10

10 Inflated LETTERS iTpB ElpiB MANCHESTER AH'ti Monday July 3 1972 Moraxand more. people, par-concerned 'about 'the ticulariy theyurig, fana to prices- oRj.b6dks.-;have..''''Wen mind Quite rightly Wider yet and wider making -paperbacks- of newVv' use Pbooks; Ukecurrency, to books, But those --Bur "are frus- aDout. wicy to preserve aw. illustrated by the libraries "and the newspapers. Newspapers' will book business trembles ton the edge of this revolution, which iso ho more than a reshuffling of existing methods, the next, a is already.

'here: tape, scanners the' stuff of what we whimsically call science fiction, will make as sharp a revision of our mental habits as did the invention of printing. Yours Doris Leasing. ll Kingscroft Road, 'London NW-2. oaDerbacks -they care about would surelyJbe prepared" to. strengthen tin covers the not review paperbacks.

There are exceptions. Time, Out isl the fitfully another. Andat'-'lasV theNew Statesman, ariachronlsti-cally has 'steadily 'refused, -in of mattypwsehtationsv to review paptatoacksat all, has changed its policy. The libraries will paperbacks, in spite Of the fact that when, they are well' done they are as, good sake of and quicker, is has been 'done, for instance, in France for-many years. The'; joke is that while the i and for writers.

Sir. -Readers will. I hope, noticed, the, secretary of, to lops at and to Handle, are as strong and durable," the the' Ubrary' Association, a mem average hardback. These1 enter -Lord Eccles. Public Lend-ine Blent Working Party, stat every way to underwater piracy.

The Government should Ibear this in mind, especially this week when it restarts its argument against Iceland's claim to a 50-mile fishing limit. Lady Tweedsmuir, as it happens, is the Minister responsible and she has so far been unwUling to accept the Icelanders' case. They have pointed out that Britain now claims the exclusive right. to exploit gas and oil at distances up to 150 miles from-Aberdeen on the grounds that they are natural resources. They have said that Iceland's only natural resource is fish and that 50 miles is all they want (unlike the Peruvians who claim 200).

Iceland has also at least at an earlier stage offered to allow British trawlers important "historic" fishing rights within their 50-mile limit, provided that all trawlers observe conservation measures. Iceland, in short, wants to conserve and exploit its underwater natural resources just as Britain wants to conserve and exploit hers. The fact that one natural resource swims andihe does not hardly affects the argument. Britain would not like it, as the Icelanders have pointed out, if an Icelandic company started drilling for gas off Southend Pier. The Government ought to recognise Iceland's need as a small country to exploit the resource that she has got.

Iceland, in particular, is a small country that no member of NATO can afford to push around too much. NATO would dislike having to forgo its early-warning installation at Keflavik even more than Britain would dislike an Icelandic well at Southend. No one will want to belittle the Royal Navy's skill and tenacity in lighting a beacon on Rockall. No one, on the other hand, should suppose, that the Government's motives were as purely charitable towards "seamen as" those which prompted Henry rFinstanley, a gentlemen of Essex, to build the first Eddystone lighthouse. Britain wants Rockall for the sake of oil, and fish, and does not mind saying so.

Commending the Island of Rockall Bll to the Lords Lady Tweedsmuir said that once Rockall was a part of Inverness-shire an Order could be made under the Continental Shelf Act, 1964, to reserve to Britain the right to explore the seabed. She also said that the Fisheries Limits Act would apply round Rockall as it does round the test of. the United Kingdom. Which means that Britain claim to exploit underwater gas and oil in a very large area south of Iceland. There is no knowing whether the gas and oil are there, or whether either gas 'r oil could be found or extracted in any case.

Most of the North Atlantic is deep (though there is a shallow bank round Rockall) and all of it is stormy, and' the Government may have small grounds for hope. -Nevertheless the Government now owns not just Rockall and its beacon but rights to the surrounding seabed as well. Britain is not alone in making large claims to underwater resources. The North Sea has been amicably parcelled out among the countries which surround it. When it comes to the exploitation of natural wealth, underwater-imperialism has come to stay.

It is respectable and preferable in old copies or stiffening paperbacks. If there; is a licence it should be In, proportion to the number of issues. However this isn't or shouldn be the writer's concern. Like free education and health services, the library service should be properly financed by the society that wants it Writers are part of that service but are expected, unlike doctors, teachers and librarians, to work for almost nothing. No teacher is asked to tell the Government how to raise the money for his salary before he can be paid.

Yet writers have been asked to think of a practical scheme which wont offend anyone principles or pocket, ana to tie themselves by proposals which will help to impoverish them for decades until the law can be changed. This 'isn't a toe In the door, it's a noose round our necks. Maureen Duffy. Boldand Garden. London SW7.

ing publicly (Guardian letters June 29) that the number of books libraries is already falling and, by. implication, that if a further 20 per cent is to be given" to writers and publishers libraries will even fewer. This is precisely one of the points those of, us- who are against the present proposals wish to stress. Unless library licences are funded by separate means, other than by taking them from existing library funds, writers will be worse off since fewer books will be Licence fees must either be supplied by the -Government (via the Arts Council?) or by a quite separate ratd Nor must the amount of the licence fee be calculated on the number of new books bought, thus providing an incentive to rebinding MM, MM I.JJ mmm. The right road for Bath ITflm Jfl gflHBEiEr TIM-; prising puDiasners, in oraer to get their reviewed at all, and to get them, info have to dress certain number- of each In -thus puttiag up the' cost again, perpetuating a state of affairs.

which If the' responsible' and the libraries could their-' attltudes would -see, and very soon, a sharp decrease in the price of books, and a shortening of the time it takes to get a book from the author's hands into those of the reader who has to wait for the paper back to read a book and this may be two, three, four, or more I do not mean to suggest that there is no future for hardbacks, but that hardback should be for special books or for particular the emphasis should shift PLO in London welcome or not Sir, A Palestine Liberation Organisation office in London, which will simply explain the point of view of the PLO and dispense information (Guardian, June 30), should surely be. welcomed in all quarters, even including Israel. Are not hi-jackings and violence of any kind frequently an expression of frustration unhappily resorted to as a means of attracting attention because injustices (whether only felt, or real) have not been adequately ventilated and dealt with by peaceful means? I have recently returned from the Middle East and am horrified by things I have seen. At Baqa'a and Jerash in Jordan, thousands of Palestinians who fled from the battle zones in and after the June war, expecting soon to return, live in tiny, makeshift asbestos huts. In the Jordan valley, at Jericho, there are.

acres and acres of (better) mud huts in. three large camps-where therefug'ees. after- had'- established a-reasonable life for themselves by fruit-farming lying: empty since the war of 1967, because the Israelis will not allow their occupants to return. In Jerusalem itself yet other Palestinians who lost everything in 1948 live in caves and about half, a mile away, on Arab land just outside the city, new Israeli housing estates are going up for Western immigrants, with the bold placard Have a foothold in Israel Luxury apartments for sale These things and others like them should be known about by Arab prolcsten leaving the Jordanian Embassy in London- character irrevocably altered. Bath's development committee, to its credit, has implicitly recognised at last the increased concern for the city's character.

By sending again for Buchanan the council would give itself and the public time to recuperate and perhaps find a compromise. The alternative proposal before the council is for the whole matter to be abandoned forthwith. Such a rejection would be wasteful of the money, thought, and criticism already usefully expended, and unmindful of the future. If the council accepts the recommendation before it, however, it will be asking Sir Colin Buchanan to review what has changed since 1965 (including the effects of the M4 and M5) and to look at the possibility of specialised public transport (a possible alternative to a tunnel What Sir Colin cannot do is to assess how a local authority Bath is no wealthier in its public purse than, say, Barnsley can support the cost of conservation of its architectural heritage on the scale now necessary. Already it runs the gauntlet not only of preservationists but of those ratepayers, who must live, work, trade, and survive in Bath just as if it were Barnsley.

and' who see conservation as a costly middle-class' Tad. Certainly the burden is more than the technical and financial resource of a local authority should reasonably bear. Successive Governments have made polite and earnest noises about providing special financial aid for so-called heritage towns. While Sir Colin thinks agan over the next eight months on how Bath might reconcile its conflicting needs, Mr Peter Walker's Department of the Environment, regardless of any eventual public inquiry, might also review the nation's responsibility towards Bath and a handful of similarly endowed towns. The best for Bath may be unattainable but very little less will do.

It would be' the nation's misfortune if the eventual solution depended at the last solely on Bath's own capacity to foot the bill. The chance of a useful respite in the long wrangle over Bath's proposed traffic tunnel occurs tomorrow. The city development committee is suggesting that before a final decision is taken Professor Buchanan, the. original proponent of the tunnel, should make fresh studies to examine its continuing suitability in the light of present realities. It is seven years since the tunnel was first mooted.

Initial objections centred largely on cost, but since then public concern over environmental considerations has grown. Thus, Buchanan's tunnel plan aimed at sweeping the east-west traffic under the city centre is itself under attack for allegedly succumbing to the traffic. The original idea was a novel and sympathetic attempt to solve the city's traffic problem with a minimum of interference with Bath's great heritage of Georgian buildings and streets. The latest plan based on it but devised by the city planners is seen rather as its distant cousin and is of a distinctly more insensitive bent; the consequent destruction would be more severe than anything Buchanan contemplated. Changes already wrought in Bath in fulfilment of lesser schemes sanctioned in the early sixties have meant large swathes of demolition in parts of old Bath that are now perhaps more valued in retrospect than in their life.

The shock has been greater because of unhappy modern successors that in one or two notable cases rudely overpower their Georgian context. Traffic needs apart, the anti-tunnellers have gained support out of local and national apprehension at what urban motorways mean in traffic loads and the inevitable paraphernalia of street furniture, overhead lighting, and the like that will be visited on Bath's essentially intimate setting. Given the" kind of reconstruction that must follow from the proposed approach roads it is unlikely that Bath's present balance and street scale could ever be the same again. There is the fear that Bath could become a kind of museum islanded by incongruous road patterns but with its again and again. This is entirely right and proper.

A group of dangerous, international thugs known as the PLO hijack our aircraft, blow them up, murder innocent Peruvian priests, and civilians at Lydda Airport, shoot-up aircraft at continental airports and so on this horrible list is by no means complete. We now allow this reprehensible group of thugs to openly display their vicious talents in a shop window in the heart of London. Democracy and tolerance Is a good thing, but to voluntarily allow the PLO to operate in this country is an affront to common decency and an insult to the British air crews, British men, women and children who have suffered, at the very least the indignity and discomfort of sitting in an aircraft wired to explode in a filthy desert strip in the hands of the PLO. Yours faithfully, Philip Smith. 133 Higher Lane, Whitefield, Lancashire.

all those who are concerned for justice and who would like to see an end to violence. Something else should also be known: the financial crisis of the United Nations, Relief and Works Agency which provides basic rations, health services and education for many of the Palestinian refugees whose lot would otherwise be even more desperate jthan it is. UNRWA is "ion-political and -does-not take sides in the Arab- -Israeli conflict; but if it is forced to make cuts in its -humanitarian work the effect on the refugees would be tragic in human terms and might also be disastrous politically. What would the refugees feel about the international community then? Yours sincerely, Eleanor Aitken. 63 Holbrook Road, Cambridge.

Sir, A young and foolish girl throws ink at the Prime Minister and upon entry Into this country she is deported hypocrisy JO GRIMOND, MP, on the Government's capitulation to inflationary forces and on the need for leadership and example in finding a socially just solution AFTER two years of Tory Goverm menit the danger of inflation is worse. It is terrifying to hear a com, placent Government's statements about prices "only" rising 6 percent per year. Anyone can work out what that-means over twenty years. The complac ency over recent wage selwements is perhaps even more frightening. Finally, we have the reassuring noises' which are being made over the floating of the Pound described as a "temporary measure." Inflation arises because earmngs through salaries, wages, speculation, expense accounts, and payments in kind rise faster than the available supply of wanted goods.

It follows that by sheer weight individual claims are a most important element It is therefore hypocrisy "for those who make these claims to weep about the misery inflicted on old age pensioners and others by their own claims. But who has set an example The Queen got 1 million or so free of tax. MPs and senior public servants are getting their cut Let no one say that these were special cases to cover increased Other people have expenses, too. And a lot of people would settle for the comfortable meals, good housing, and free travel incidental to interesting work. Some speculators have made for, tunes.

And, as if the recent rise in property and stock exchange values were not enough, they have voted themselves higher perks, higher salaries, and very often exceedingly fat option schemes. "Ah," says the Tory Government, but these are the great entrepreneurs who are making the economy boom." Well, we still have getting on for a million unemployed, no great surge of production, and stag, nant Investment Who gets most In any event, the relationship be, tween higher rewards and greater effort at the top is obscure. For one thing, the rewards of directors and managers rise steadily whether their companies are doing or not. Secondly, should the type of property speculation which is going on be re, warded so highly? Now we have a fiscal policy which has greatly reduced taxation at the top levels and allowed lucrative practices such as charging loan interest against tax to those who pay high taxation. We should not grudge the marrafac, turer a high return where it 1 bis industrial skill and hard work which provides the public with an essential product But this is not necessarily the sort of person who gains most from the modern climate.

Ham-strung by regulations, milked by the need for accountants and lawyers, harassed by constant changes in policy he will often be better to sell out to a take, over bidder and devote bis life to tax evasion and speculation. Life is not easy for the manager of a small com, pany. Then the Government now comes along'and bemoans the lack of patriot, ism in engine-drivers who ask for 25 a week. Not of course that the Govern, ment are ultimately going to stand firm against any sufficiently large and deter, mined opponent The first fiascos were Rolls-Royce and the Upper Clyde ship, yard settlements. Some of the press and the Opposition are still repeating the old parrot cries about this being a ruthless, tough Government with an economic policy.

It is nothing of the sort. It has, of course, fearlessly clobbered school milk and attempted ruth, lessly to impose museum charges. These victories may be possible because the Government can take on small children and curators. But let anyone of any size stand up to it and it turns tail. Given the present situation the Government can hardly do anything else.

Neither -morally nor by expounding an acceptable economic policy has it -prepared any ground on which, it can stand. Leadership by example in restraint is wholly lacking where it is most needed at the top. The public too do not give any Government adequate support for the of measures which are needed. The Industrial is an appallingly Irrelevant dottiness typical of Ministers who seem to have lost touch with reality. So we face competitive claims for higher and higher rewards led by the office A political muddle With such a large public sector as there is -today, immune from the discipline of either the capital market or competition, it Is nonsense to expect earnings to be settled by economic forces.

In any case, the market does not operate by competition even where private enterprise still exists. Cur society is being more and more disillusioned by the results of the present muddle. Inflation is a political problem. It involves the age-old political skills of reconciling different interests and upholding the general interest against particular There are -no grounds based on economics, justice or sWll in paying aircraft pilots 9,000 or 10,000 a year and engine-driven 1,250. There is no justification for some of the expenses of going to law or employing an.

architect Our society should -reject the scale of values enshrined in the present system of rewards. It is a socialistcapitaJist muddle. It also mafcesno sense. We shall have to pay far more to fetthe unpleasant bflrirsjobs done and jcut down on the pleasant But mi cu4 out the Some are among those fight for and One day We.lrad aiieiwatic clamour in two popular, newspapers about, the dangerr of; inflation. -Who wrote the stories? Jouroi(uIsii--whO'are themselves threatening one ofhe moet wildly, inflationary Wiio jiMducedthe papers? Proprietors amdprintowho havefoperahalr' wising restrictive prarauTawn i for many yeai If.

inflation is cohtidrfediwe need leadership and example. And these must be given from he top. Like other people Priority to first-time home buyers 9 Checkmate before you move Whether or not Bobby -Fischer has arrived disappearedhijacked an airlinerwrecked the Reykjavik National Theatre will be found by referring to our news pages. It is possible, during most emergencies, to keep leading articles up to date as the night goes on but the strain of doing so tells on -our staff, and in any case it is not safe to assume, that the latest twist and turn in this new Icelandic saga is what it appears to be. Fischer is said to have an IQ of 184.

The Guardian's collective IQ is also fairly high, although for security reasons it is not possible to state a precise figure. We should be misleading readers, however, if -we pretended that it was high enough to- anticipate every move in the pre-chess game that has now been going on for several months. Boris Spassky may have a shrewd Idea of what his opponent is likely to do next, but he is keeping his own counsel. So far his performance In the pre-chess, aided no doubt by his yoga exercises, has been -Every -nrve-raying move. that.

Fischer has made has been met with a calm and measured" response. At one time it seemed possible that Fischer had counted on so confusing Both Ministers admit that controlling building society funds would control prices, but they claim that this would hit the young and the lower paid hardest and therefore cannot be countenanced. This grossly oversimplifies the case for control of building society funds. There, is absolutely no reason why building societies could not be given a directive to give priority to the first time buyer (who has no capital gain from a previous transaction) and tp the lower paid. And Incidentally, Government control of these institutional funds with support when deposits fall' would ensure that funds were at a stable level," extracting us from the unsatisfactory stop-go building rates of recent years.

David Bebb. Shelter, 86 Strand, London WC 2. Sir, Is it uncharitable of me to suggest that as the Government would seemingly not oppose schemes to turn Piccadilly into an office block (with or without the Criterion) Mr Peter Walker is cultivating some public, sympathy approval by taking on Mr Hyams, the owner of I submit that it is all political -expediency and all too little and stoo damn late Yours sincerely, David Savlle. 2-Hurst- Lodge, Road, -London N8. Sir, There is, in Gillian Kndall's review of Like Other People," and in her reply to Mr Hunt's letter, an imputation that the film is facile and contrived.

This it is not: rather, it is a straight statement of the facts. Margaret and Willie have been very much in love for some time and in our centres-there are other couples like them. I am prompted to write this letter because I have just received an invitation to their wedding which is to take place on July 10 and has been made possible because a local authority has offered them a specially adapted flat They are lucky because their appearance in the film caused a local authority to offer, them accommodation. The others will have to wait until The Spastics Society or local authorities raise money to build special accommodation for them. The film does not suggest that heavily handicapped people are like other people" but does say that heavily handicapped people have the same sexual uTge3 and emotional needs as other people.

To sug-gest as Gillian Tmdall does that it portrays narrow romanticism-which should be sublimated by finding different outlets for affection" and not aping normal adult pursuits" is cant of the worst James Loring, 1 Director. The Spastics Society, London 1. Gir, Peter Walker's bland surrender to the market forces which are increasingly putting house purchase beyond the means of the average wage earner is depressing (Guardian June 30). One expects more from the man who has so enthusiastically attacked the most obscene results of commercial property But at least Mr Walker admits- to having a problem. His Housing Minister, Julian Amery, on the other hand assures us that young, would-be purchasers are not being priced out of the market (Properly Administration Conference June 29).

He tells us that the low paid and' the young are getting a substantial share of all building society loans, His apparent unconcern is alarming. We all know that house prices in much of the North and in many rural-areas do not exclude the average wage earner yet We all know young working wives had. their income taken into account by building societies in the recent period of surplus But to gloss over a 30 per cent rate of inflation in any analysis of the situation is specious. The average wage earner cannot buy anything, better than a remote, substandard property in the Home and Southern coun- -ties, and he just cannot buy any sort of house in, London. And that situation applies, to' lesser degree; in many parts the country.

the Russians about the meeting place that Spassky would not turn up, thus allowing the champion ship to pass into Free World hands by default The naivete of such a ploy among masters soon ruled it out of serious consideration. Whatever game Fischer is playing it is far deeper than this. But even if Fischer were to complete the scheduled series of games, and even if he lost them all and both suppositions must be extremely unlikely he is the first man to have added a new dimension to the game since it first broke away from its obscure origins. Hitherto the game has begun when two players sat down at a table one of them moved a pawn. In future such a view of chess will be regarded as amusingly antiquarian.

What used to be regarded as openings, like the Buy Lopez, or the Queen's gambit declined, are now no more -than the beginning of the end-game. It is a sad reflection on the world's press, we fear, that the first chess match which it has attended in such force should be almost over before the first pawn is pushed. For when Fischer and Spassky face each other across the table only the formalities remain. COUNTRY DIARY KESWICK: Happiness, this cool June, is to have warm sim on one's back, spirits rise with the flow of light and this affects, all living things insects, birds, animals and flowers. The disused railway line which winds up the river valley here (seven bridges in a short distance) is alive with' colour and movement this afternoon.

Gone Is the recollection of this morning's rain and the thought that there will be more tomorrow. Butterflies amble, along the warmth of the railway track, visiting flowers on -its sides, mauve geranium, yellow broom and various umbel-lifers. A thicket of wild raspberries Sums with scores of bumble bees of many sizes and several sorts. Indeed, I have not seen such a concourse of bumbles for years or heard so happy a hum except from honey bees in my garden. The birds, now, are concerned with their young.

A pair of dippers whose nest is under the bridge are paddlinr in and out of the fast-flowing river in search of food, only pausing briefly to sing or to pair of sandpipers Whistle their distress at one's coming, and two grey wagtails are anxious too, as well they might be. Two of their very infant birds are sitting close, together on the. stone coign of a bridge iot really fliers yet but weD-fledged and their ridiculously short tails are already brightly yellow, All, along the railway banks there are signs of badger, activity, scrapes, small diggings and paths in the undergrowth and a new sett near a cutting is in use. There are no young here; It seems, this year but next year could be different' It is certainly a secluded place. One listens, quite unconsciously, for a train especially in the short, light tunnel where the air sets the ferns dancing and flings the water-drops out into the sun to fall in a shower of diamond ooflaurs but it is only the rush of the (river, below, nothing else.

ENID ft WILSON. If Rudi pickets the cinema Irtodudng 1 Quakers I a papertback by George B. Gorman A compiensiye picture of the prerat-day Sodetf of Friends in Britain, by a Qoaker whose basin est time Potter had not been pub, licly exhibited -4- Mr Delfont and I felt-that the material In the Nureyev film deserved a much wider audience and as a result EMI injected further large, sums- of money to enable the producer to complete the Trench! version and then enlarge the scope of the flhn for presentatlon in the commercial cinema. It is ta.y--that; Rudi "5 screamed andywed on sev-eral notable occasions, for i was witness to these' inspired performances. Her 'did outgone occasion become enough to reach for his cheque book but tumed'the colour of pack-ice Ma, dffer was accepted for siuusvaifly in excess of the 30,000 1: quotes.

He subsequently; agreed perform long "excepts from two other ballets of lubwctolce Sir, I read with some amusement the official Russian version of the birth of the film "lama Dancer" in Terry Coleman's interview with Rudolf Nureyev. Rudi is a superb, unique dancer with considerable off-stage charm, but he is not alas, one of Nature's historians. i Erom'his the casual reader might believe that the flhn was-made; without his active cooperation. It is quite true that it was originally conceived for French television and a version, in black and white, was screened in that country over a year ago. Mr Bernard DeHont and I sat literally, on orange boxes in a derelict' cinema and were shown a mass of unedited 16mm material in the very early, stages.

We made no comparison with the box office success of Beatrix Potter Aow could we, for, at that namely "Field Figures" and Sleeping Beauty." He was con-suited at every stage of the editing, and allowed to choose his own close-ups. The mentary -waswritten by of his own choice and the: final- draft "verified by him -(which nowhere." contains th6l! quoted kitsch phrase in Coleman's piecfrrrthis Is pure If he decides- to picket the: performance i outside ABC; 1 In Shaftesbury Avenue on Tuesday I am" sure hlscbuntless" fan Will enjoy the spectacle as muchin as himself, and the resulting; publicity will doubtless the profits of rightly shares. Yours sln-v cerely. rZ'-f' Bryan Virginia Wateft att.gS tt is to explain. Friends' beliefs and attitudes to intensted eaqotren Introducing ttnafcen will be sent free to readers of the Guardian who sand this coupon.

I To: Quaker Infornuttoo' Service (DKr I Mends Hoasc. Buxton ttosd. London. NWL Nam'.