Letter: How British citizens could help the Bosnians

Sir: Looking at the sad statistics in today's paper about the number of refugees from the disintegrated former Yugoslavia, I note that Britain has so far admitted not only an astonishingly small number of refugees, but fewer than Poland and Luxembourg.

Coming from a family who had been thrown out of Austria by Hitler after the Anschluss in 1938, and being aware that a refugee cannot afford the luxury of waiting and choosing, I deplore the 'appeasement' policy of my much- loved adopted country.

My father's brother did not make it to these happy shores because the British Consulate would only grant him a visa if he would take the job of a gardener - which he, being a lawyer, turned down out of old-fashioned middle-class morality and therefore ended up in Auschwitz, where he died. When I think about his fate I am tempted to return my British citizenship and my passport via the Home Secretary's office.

Yours faithfully,

WOLFGANG GEORG FISCHER

London, SW1

29 July