Letters: Xenophobia: more sad than serious

Sir: The British public may have been concerned about the German "threat" after 1906 (letters, 22 June) but this attitude did not extend to the lower deck in the Royal Navy.

As any (old) naval officer can tell you, when, between the wars, ships of the Royal Navy and the German Navy were in port together, the ship's companies usually got along famously. But if a ship of the US Navy was also in port, there was fighting in every bar, often with the British and the Germans in alliance.

G P ALLEN

Eaton Bishop, Hereford