THE attack on Mike Bentley's criticism of the Guardian by your correspondent Mr Whiting was ill-timed, and rather selective in the facts quoted to support his claim that the Guardian and its readers represent truth and objectivity.

I doubt his claim that the Guardian was the only newspaper in the 30s to report Hitler's treatment of the Jews.

Although only a schoolboy I can recall reading articles in several newspapers by Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Lord Vansittart and others warning of what was happening in Germany, and calling on Britain to "wake up".

However, at that time, the mass execution of Jews had not begun. Nevertheless in another country innocent citizens were being executed on a large scale, but the Guardian not only didn't publish this fact, it denied it was happening.

In the late 30s it sent Malcolm Muggeridge to Russia as its Moscow correspondent, but when he sent back reports of the Stalin Terror and the Gulags, the Guardian said they were lies, and not only refused to publish them but sacked Muggeridge.

And, of course, when it came to killing innocent people Hitler was an amateur compared to Stalin.

So the Guardian was willing to publish the atrocities of right wing governments, but denied that those of left wing governments were happening, even though in addition to the reports of their own Moscow correspondent there were many other reports published about what was happening in Russia.

As to the claim that Guardian readers "liberal and progressive views have made Britain what it is today, a democratic, tolerant, kindly and largely classless society" it was unfortunate that Mr Whiting's letter was published on the same day as the report of 40 pupils threatening to kill another pupil, and in the same week that the Government stated it is concerned about the violent behaviour of children in schools and on the streets.

Councils are now appointing anti-social behaviour co-ordinators, and crimes involving guns have doubled. I doubt that many citizens will share his views.

H Brown,

Scarborough Road,

Rillington.

Updated: 10:46 Friday, December 03, 2004