Letter: Pinochet des res

Sir: I was puzzled by the Home Office's frantic search for secure accommodation for General Pinochet after his eviction from the clinic. Surely, as a prisoner of the state he is entitled to be locked up in the Tower of London. In fact, I think the General should insist upon it.

After all, it does command an amount of kudos. In Spandau jail Admiral Doenitz snubbed Rudolph Hess for a number of years, refusing to speak to him, but when he heard that Hess had been lodged in the Tower as a prisoner of the state he was mightily impressed, and from that moment he went out of his way to be nice to him.

WILLIAM F LONG

Loughton, Essex