WITH reference to Britain's part in the creation of the state of Israel, I too found D E Margrett's letter of interest and I agree with most of its contents.

Britain - with Arab allies - captured Palestine from the Ottoman Turks during the First World War. In the Balfour Declaration of 1917, Britain promised the Jews the state of Israel in Palestine. Furthermore, this promise was subsequently included in the mandate conferred on Britain by the League of Nations in 1922.

Britain could not reconcile the contradictory promises it made to the Jewish and Palestinian people. And while America was pushing and cajoling Britain to honour the Balfour declaration, the various militant Zionist groups were causing havoc.

In the end, Britain yielded and perhaps reluctantly gave way for the state of Israel to come into being on Palestinian land.

L SPITERI,

Worcester.