As Tony Lake, Mr Clinton's national security adviser puts it, "these are realities". Not bad for a middling European power, professing to be a bridge between the US and Europe, but whose ruling party cannot even agree on its role in Europe. The "special relationship", insofar as it existed, was forged in the Second World War and survived the Cold War which followed it The Cold War is over Perhaps we should be thankful we are still friends.. From Mr Michael O'Toole Sir: Why all the heart-searching about Eric Cantona's line (report, 1 April): "When seagulls follow the trawler it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea"? Clearly, this is a muddled translation of Malcolm Muggeridge's dictum: "Journalists follow authority as sharks follow a liner, dining on the scraps that are thrown overboard."Yours faithfully,MICHAEL O'TOOLEPortmarnock,County Dublin1 April. From Mr James Hale Sir: If BMARC, the Lincolnshire-based arms firm, acted illegally in selling arms to Iran via Singapore ("New evidence on Aitken arms link", 30 March) was anyone prosecuted for this action? If not, why not? And if they were to be prosecuted now, would not Jonathan Aitken - whatever protestations he may make as to his knowledge of the activities of the company of which he was a director - be among those facing charges? Let us be straight about this; the people who held responsibility for the company should be charged, including Mr Aitken and, while he is so charged, he should be suspended from his duties.

Then we may learn the truth of all this.Yours faithfully,JAMES HALELondon, SE15. From Ms Ann Furedi Sir: The latest encyclical of Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (the Gospel of Life), claims to proclaim the value, dignity, grandeur and worth of every human life while condemning the "culture of death" which threatens civilisation ("Pope urges protest against abortion laws", 31 March). For the Pope, the culture of death is evident in the existence of abortion, embryo research and euthanasia which he sees as crimes against life which no human law can justify. It is unfortunate, but predictable, that the papal condemnation of the culture of death has nothing to do with reality faced by millions around the world, struggling for life in the face of starvation or war. Nor does his declaration of a gospel of life address the needs of those trying to maintain some dignity and quality of life while facing pain or despair.What is a woman carrying an anencephalic foetus which has no chance of survival after birth, or a foetus with such severe spina bifida that it will live only a short and agonising life, to make of the declaration that abortion "always constitutes a grave moral disorder". In what position does this place a woman whose own health is jeopardised by her pregnancy?But the recent encyclical does not aim to address the real circumstances that life throws at us. The need to condemn human intervention against God and nature is at its heart.

In condemning abortion, infertility treatments and euthanasia as unjustifiable crimes, the Pope criminalises those who try to take control of their lives by using modern medical techniques.His message is that humanity should passively accept what life throws at us and that we should shun the scientific developments which enable us to shape our destiny.Yours faithfully,ANN FUREDIDirectorBirth Control TrustLondon W131 March. From Professor B I. Sacks Sir: The emotional debate about community care (reports, 27 March and Letters, 29 March) does not sufficiently emphasise that the label "learning difficulties" (mental handicap) covers an enormously large spectrum; from people who have relatively minor problems to those who (in the severe category) are best described as having multiple handicaps. This group may have sensory disorders, neuromuscular disorders, epilepsy, psychiatric and behaviour disorders. The suggestion that the needs of everyone in this very large continuum can be best served by a single model of care is not borne out by research nor by common experience. There are many people who live in small group homes in large cities such as London who spend a great deal of their time in relatively confined spaces and do not have a wide choice of friends, social events, education and space; village communities may be better able to offer such opportunities in many cases.Surely the best approach is not to take refuge in polarised ideological positions but to realise that a wide range of services is needed depending on the nature of the needs of the individual.Yours faithfully,BEN SACKSUnit of Developmental PsychiatryCharing Cross and WestminsterMedical SchoolUniversity of LondonLondon, W629 March.

From Ms Claire Kennedy Sir: I feel that Mary Dejevsky was badly informed when she visited Paris's new national library ("Volumes of dissent decry Paris library", 30 March) in that she failed to mention the unparalleled use of wood from tropical rainforests in its construction, other than the fact that the interior was "warmed by ... hardwood panelling". In 1992, in the heat of the Rio Summit, when the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN warned that 17 million hectares of rainforest disappear each year, the creators of the national library decided that the new symbol of French culture was to be little more than a showcase for tropical wood. Today the four glass towers stand on a six-hectare esplanade which is made entirely of ipe, a timber from the Amazonian rainforest. Since this is a "solitary" tree - peppered throughout the rainforest roughly one every 10 hectares - the 600 or so trees needed for the esplanade meant ravaging around 6,000 hectares of rainforest. Inside, there are window shutters encased in okoume, an endangered wood from Gabon, and two other African tropical woods, padouk and afzelia, are used for the interior fittings.In many cities a project such as this would not have been allowed in the first place due to the fact that since the late 1980s many municipalities have included policies which ban or control the use of tropical wood in public buildings.Yours faithfully,CLAIRE KENNEDYAssociation Robin des Bois(Association for the protectionof humanity and the environment)Paris31 March. From Dr D A.