Letter: Xenophobic anthem

Sir: I freely admit to being a Nationalist, if neither an anarchist or an atheist, but Donald Foreman (letter, 5 August)does fail to address important failings about the National Anthem.

Firstly in no sense is it a hymn. It was first sung by the Drury Lane players in 1745 as the Jacobite armies were advancing on London. The fourth verse that nobody has sung for donkey's years contained a plea to the Almighty to "crush native Scots".

How can such an 18th-century xenophobic ditty be in any way seen as either Christian or National?

JAMES SAMUEL COLE

Neath, West Glamorgan