Sir: Lord Avebury has recently been sharply reminded that doctors
cannot be slandered with impunity; he should be careful about traducing lawyers. So far as I know, Mr Francis Bennion, who has shown an admirable sense of public duty in initiating a private prosecution of Mr Peter Hain, is totally opposed to discrimination on grounds of colour. He is also as fervent a supporter as Lord Avebury of the principle of nonviolent protest; disruption is quite another matter. Mr HaM seems to think that in questions of morals he has a prescriptive right to ignore the rule of law. I beg leave to doubt his infallibility. Indeed, far from agreeing that "it was a great triumph for non-racialism when the '70 tour • was stopped," I think it may well have been as damaging t,o racial harmony in this country as the utterances about Dachau made by Mr Benn, Mr Hain virtually invited • prosecution for his ostentatious refusal to complete the census form. Let him not now whine on another issue.
Perhaps I may add that I am a member of the National Council for Civil Liberties (the greatest bastion of which is the law of the land) and of the Bradford Community Relations Council, a body that works quietly and non-politically for racial harmony.
Bernard V. Slater 21 Marriner's Drive, Bradford. Yorkshire
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