An official protest has been made about "insensitive and potentially offensive remarks" allegedly made to foreign students by the Sheriff of York.

Coun Harry Briggs was an official guest at an international fair at the University of York when he is said to have made the remarks to German and Bosnian students.

But today Coun Briggs strenuously denied that he made any inappropriate comments while he was a VIP guest at the annual 'Fiesta' event.

The fair is the highlight of International Week at the university, when students of 20 different nationalities display traditional items from their countries on stalls.

But in a formal letter of protest to the Mansion House, Linus Koenig, president of the university's overseas students' association, said: "On finding out that a German student was from Aachen, Germany, he Coun Briggs replied in reference to him 'bombing there in the Second World War'.

"In speaking to a Bosnian student, he made general remarks about the naturally more aggressive nature of Bosnian nationals.

"Both of these might have been intended to be in any way witty or funny, but, in fact they were potentially offensive to many people and, at the very least, insensitive."

But Coun Briggs said his attempts to make a connection with the students had been misinterpreted.

He said: "I was ten years old when the war broke out and I've never bombed anything in my life.

"I remember talking to a student from Aachen and I said I do remember during the war that Aachen suffered greatly from bombing. What's so offensive about that?

"The Second World War was 50 years ago. Can't we even speak of it ?

"I married a German woman, my two sons are half-German, I lived abroad for 24 years and lived among people from all over the world. Why would I go around making anti-German remarks ?"

But the student said: "We were talking about Germany and he was telling me how the English bombed the Germans in the Second World War.

"It just annoyed me because there are other ways of talking to people. I was offended."

Coun Briggs said his comments to the Bosnian girl were also taken out of context while they were discussing the fact that the Balkans had, for many years, been a trouble spot for conflicts.

"I also went to the Japanese stall so I suppose do I wait now for a letter saying that I said something about Nagasaki and Hiroshima?"

"I had a lovely evening and I was greatly offended by this letter. I was doubly offended by the fact that he sent it to all sorts of people but never asked me about it."

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