Jesus wept
Sir: Sam Dunning’s brilliant exposure of the corrupting links between Jesus College, Cambridge and the Chinese Communist party (‘Centre of attention’, 5 February) raises the question of how the college can be rescued from its current leaders. Their virtue-signalling gestures (the Benin bronze, the Rustat memorial etc) have already prompted many of us alumni to delete Jesus from our wills. But this association with vile tyranny is altogether more serious. Perhaps an academic boycott might bring the Master and Fellowship to their senses. Certainly something must be done to save this ancient Christian foundation from its present role as an agent and support of manifest evil.
Francis Bown
London E3
Passing the bullet
Sir: Jeremy Clarke writes of injuries sustained but long ignored by veterans of the Great War (Low life, 5 February). I was a trainee doctor in London in the early 1960s and at that time it was still quite common to see these little old barrel-chested veterans of the trenches. When X-rayed, they often displayed a variety of military hardware within them of which they were quite unaware. Some of this metal needed surgical removal but occasionally it passed per via naturalis. A nurse (now my wife), witnessing such an event, reported a satisfying clang as the bullet hit the bottom of the urinal!
Adam Lewis
Radlett, Herts
Treasure trove
Sir: I can relate to Laurie Graham’s conundrum around sorting out what to keep and what to discard (‘Small matters’, 29 January). I have a loft full of baby clothes, favourite toys, cards of all sorts, nursery drawings and now, bits and pieces from my parents’ house. I’d just like to add a cautionary note to Laurie’s desire to clear the decks so the next generation doesn’t have to. We cleared my family home when my father died in 2020 — just before lockdown began.
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