From Mr R. B. A. Johns, MRPharmS
SIR,-For a number of reasons I have avoided engaging in the "Breeding" correspondence and have no wish to do so now. However, Mr Humfress's letter (PJ, July 29, p161) should not go unanswered for, in my view at least, it puts you, Sir, in a no-win situation.
Had you failed to print his criticism of your policy vis-à-vis the content of your correspondence columns you could have lain open to a charge of suppression of free speech and from the tenor of his letter it might be inferred that such a charge would be readily forthcoming. In printing it as you have, you inevitably give publicity to his own attempted suppression. Indeed his remark on wealth distribution hints at a political philosophy shared by a number of regimes given to severe censorship of dissident opinion.
Having myself suffered dismissal from the editorship of a parish magazine for refusing to accept censorship by churchwardens, I wish to express as forcefully as I can my hope that you will continue to open your columns to all shades of opinion, subject only to the avoidance of obscenity, blasphemy or sedition.
R. B. A. Johns
Boston, Lincolnshire