Sir, - Regarding Saddam Husein's reluctance to let the investigating staff into Baghdad, I remember that some years ago I sent a young Co Mayo man with stomach trouble to have a barium meal test. He had, as far as I can remember, a gastric ulcer, but it was his general physical appearance that made me ask questions. He was pale and his chest X-ray was what one expects in a man 30 to 40 years older. I asked him where he had been and he said that he was a construction worker in Baghdad. They were constructing reinforced concrete bunkers 80 feet down and some of the floors were four feet thick. I gathered that a mosque was to be built on top.
Having served in the 14th Army I was aware of the strict order to the artillery not to drop shells near a mosque. One wonders if some of Saddam's most secret research was done there. - Yours, etc., Maj. Mervyn Clarke, R.A.M.C.,
Rosbeg, Westport, Co. Mayo.