'SECURITY . FORCES' SIR,—What are 'security forces'? Soldiers, policemen or firemen?
Whence came the .term? And by whom first used? Is the term a European euphemism?
By whom are 'security forces' controlled and of what colour or nationality are those 'operating' in Nyasaland? Do they only come into being in a 'state of emergency' and what is the difierenee between the latter and martial law? Have we any 'security forces' in Great Britain?
Finally, what are these `forces' supposed to 'secure'? Civil obedience, political acquiescence, status quo. orderly • progress or merely the lives and property of political minorities?
Perhaps I am being too cynical, but what are we to .think when a Federal Government spokesman is reported as saying that a combined mobile force has set out on a goodwill mission, armed and with the intention of arrestihg troublemakers but not, mark you, intended as a show of force (Observer, March 15)?—Yours faithfully,
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