He who laughs last . . .

Sir—In Salient of July 16, you (and four others) signed a letter "to the editor", which immediately followed a letter signed by five people, including myself. Your letter was obviously a parody of ours.

As I understand it, it is only permissable for an editor or member of his staff (in a paper such as Salient) to insert a Comment. accompanying a letter in to the editor" Columns, where there is a fact which can be clarified or when an attack has been made, on the paper or a member of the staff, which can be rebutted.

But this comment appears a letter, possibly written independently of our letter which in fact has obviously been shown to a number of people so that a reply could he published next to the original.

It is evident that you realised that if you had published our letter alone, Mr Gager's considerable abilities as a parrot would have had no effect in Confusing the isues raised by our letter.

I contend that you as an editor have acted irresponsibly—in treating a serious letter as a joke— and that your action was a clear violation of the ethics of journalism.

I also submit that Salient is not a joke-sheet for the benefit of Mr Gager and yourself.

Yours faithfully,

G. A. Fyson.

[If Mr Fyson were to read the reply to his letter again, carefully,. he might see beyond the joke. I agree that it would have been better to delay publication of the reply for a week or so. —ed]