21 JANUARY 1989, Page 24

Easier exit

Sir: In his fascinating article ('Safe exit from Yalta', 14 January), Timothy Garton Ash concludes that the European Com- munity is the only safe exit from Yalta.

He appears to have overlooked the Council of Europe, which now has 23 member nations (the whole of Western Europe and Scandinavia), and which has valuable links already with many Eastern European countries.

Surely it must be an easier route for these countries to accede to Council of Europe conventions and to become more closely linked in other ways than to seek to join the Community, which is so much smaller in its European coverage.

Geoffrey Finsberg

House of Commons, London SW1