WITH the murder of a police officer carrying out his duty, we must surely now be aware that acts of terrorism can easily be carried out against people in Britain, particularly if our vigilance and that of our counter-terrorist organisations are working at less than 100 per cent of efficiency.

This leads to the question: what went wrong with the operation to arrest those who were thought to be connected with the possible terrorist use of the deadly poison ricin?

We are told that one of the arrested suspects was one of several Algerian asylum-seekers refused refuge here and who had absconded and 'melted' into the population. Why is this allowed to happen?

If one has been able to do that, so can many others. They can then link with other terrorists and await their call to carry out acts of terrorism.

Unlike in the past two world wars, there are no bombs dropping to pinpoint the enemy;, neither are there uniforms to tell us who is with us and who is against us. So the lesson of extreme vigilance must be learned, particularly if Britain and America start a war on Iraq. This will automatically alienate millions in the Arab world and the world in general.

ALBERT J MORRIS, Clement View, Nelson.