Sir, - The second World War was waged while I was at the impressionable age between eight and 14. My father was killed fighting the Nazis and the films of Belsen were not entirely surprising confirmation of their atrocities. In addition, my attitude is coloured by a small but proud fraction of Jewish ancestry. All this inclines to make me prejudiced.
Recently I published one or two new poems by Francis Stuart in my magazine and a reader cancelled his subscription, using gutter language that was reminiscent above all of fascist anti-Semitism, except that it was directed at someone else. Let us not make the mistake that many Germans made. Extreme nationalism, racial and ideological bigotry, condemnation by hearsay, advocacy of violence in degrees quite unjustified by its cause, and the desire to obliterate awkward minorities - these are ingredients and definitions of fascism.
If I find a hint of them in my exsubscriber or in one of your columns and don't find them in Francis Stuart, I don't draw conclusions, but it does make me think. And I know that my father, for whom I wear at least a spiritual poppy, would agree. - Yours, etc.,
Publisher, Books Ireland magazine, Newgrove Avenue, Dublin 4.