We are currently enjoying our existing son's dalliance with random words like turtle, sky, biscuit, so it seems he has escaped the threat of speech delay after being zapped himself as a 19-week foetus. By going along tomorrow for the scan, now no longer ignorant of its potential dangers, am I knowingly putting the brain of this child at risk? I don't think anyone will know for sure by tomorrow, so I'll drink the three pints of liquid, hope that my bladder doesn't explode in the waiting room, and pray that bad luck or bad rays don't strike my baby.L HAMILTONAldbourne,Wiltshire. Since its creation in 1864 by the Duc de Morny, Deauville's month-long race meeting has gained in prestige, and it is now the place to liberate the glad rags and give the poodle a good shampoo and blow dry. There is something quintessentially French and smooth about the place. The capital's desertion in high summer is a predictable occurence and the moveable feast ends for many, and just about all racing aficionados, in the Normandy spa of Deauville. A queue of lurking figures wearing black and white hooped shirts leads to the swankier residences of Paris at this time of year.
Sir: I sit down for a moment's quiet read, feeling exhausted, sick and 19 weeks pregnant, after a morning running around after my 16- month tornado. Tomorrow I'm off for my ultrasound scan - modern technology with no side-effects - and what am I faced with in today's Independent (13 August)? An expose on the safety of ultrasound scans Great. In the Lusaka Protocol, it is not stipulated that Unita ought only to bring fit combatants. Unita is a guerrilla force begun in 1966 to resist the Portuguese and then to fight MPLA domination. Hoping that its ranks would be filled with thousands of Rambo lookalikes is to expect much.ANIBAL KANDEYAUnited Kingdom RepresentativeThe National Union for the Independence of Angola (Unita)London W1. The last report of the United Nations Security Council, for instance, called upon the Angolan government to observe the disarmament of the armed civilians; to help in the creation of a unified, integrated army; to promote the observation of human rights; to allow the United Nations to start an independent radio station in Luanda.Talk about the "quality" of Unita men who were supposed to go to the quartering camps is inappropriate. In July, Unita handed in its heavy weapons. Blondin Beye, the United Nations special representative in Angola, has commended Unita for doing everything to carry out the Lusaka accords.We were surprised by the condemnatory sweep of the letter.
The authors preferred to remain silent on the obligations of the Angolan government stemming from the accords. Having surmounted them, Unita has now quartered more than 61,000 men, almost the total number of its soldiers. Sir: Bob Hughes, Malcolm Harper and others (letter, 12 July) stated that Unita was the main impediment to the peace process in Angola. The quartering of the Unita soldiers has been slower than expected because of logistical problems which had little to do with Unita. Beaumarchais' various plays about Figaro and his chums provided the inspiration for this opera plus others by Rossini, Paisiello and Massenet Dr DAVID DEVLIN Cambridge. It would be quite unreasonable to begrudge the hard- working and deservedly popular Princess Anne her title of Princess Royal. JENNIFER MILLERLondon SW15.
Monsieur: In her entertaining piece about tragedy (The DIY University, 14 August) Edith Hall says that the French dramatist Beaumarchais "composed the libretto for Mozart's Marriage of Figaro Pas vrai The libretto was by the amusing old Lorenzo Da Ponte. While this clarification is marginal to the good article Fisk wrote, yet it is necessary to put it down. Dr GEORGES JABBOUR Former Adviser to the President of the Syrian RepublicDamascus. Sir: In holding the Japanese imperial family up as a shining example, Peter Martin (letter, 14 August) seems unaware that here considerable reductions in royal staff numbers have already been made since the last war, and now published reports on palace spending show that great economies have been achieved. Recently the Queen has volunteered to pay income tax (in addition to the indirect taxation to which she was always liable) and has undertaken the burden of the Civil List payments to all her relatives, except her husband and mother.
Later in the day a Lebanese friend of Fisk visited me and got the booklet. Sir: I read Robert Fisk's article on the Crusaders (1 August) in which he refers to me as having visited him a few months ago. I rang Fisk on Friday 21 April 1995 (16 months ago) and announced to him the appearance of my booklet A Message to His Holiness the Pope and wanted him to cover it. In fact, the Cardinal called for research and funding for alternative means of treating human infertility that would be more successful than IVF and would not involve profligate sacrifice of early human lives.The Cardinal identified respect for human life as the central drive of the pro-life movement. Presumably "Catholics for a Free Choice" would think it right to restrict the freedom to choose to destroy human life in the womb at some stage prior to birth.NICHOLAS COOTEAssistant General SecretaryCatholic Bishops' Conference of England and WalesLondon SW1. No authoritative statement has been issued by Rome expressing a view on these options. Understanding of embryonic development has evolved in the 16 centuries since St Augustine, and quite radically so in the past 20 years.