Letter: Flags of convenience

BRIAN WILSON'S case against the unrestricted use of flags of convenience ('Flagging the way to disaster', 10 January) could have been made even stronger if he had pointed out that Liberia has had no effective government for more than two years and that its present interim regime is again under attack from Charles Taylor's NPFL rebels. Are any safety standards at all being applied in Liberia?

Janet Clarke, Hartlepool