Letter: Saudi executions

Sir: You encourage Saudi Arabia to introduce more democracy and to abolish the death penalty. Each aspiration may be admirable on its own. But you cannnot have both together. In this country, for example, if we had more democracy there would almost certainly be public executions immediately.

Yours faithfully,

JAMES CRAIG

London, SW1

1 July

The writer was HM Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, 1979-84.