Letter: No Christian virtue in Serbian acts

Sir: With regard to your stirring call to arms over Bosnia (leading article, 23 April), have you consulted your defence correspondent about the operational implications? Have you noted the analysis made in the same issue by Conor Cruise O'Brien?

In particular, have you guesstimated the total number of ground troops required - including line-of- communication and base troops? Have you calculated the size of the base facilities required, such as main ordnance depots, workshops and hospitals? Have you considered where these should be located? Have you considered how long it would take to put this military infrastructure and the international army group in place?

If you have not done these things, your call to arms is no more than self-gratifying rhetoric.

Yours faithfully,

CORRELLI BARNETT

Keeper

Churchill Archives Centre

Churchill College

Cambridge

23 April