Give them a chance

Dear Sir, I WAS indeed sad to read about the situation regarding reports of violent bullying in the “Royal Marines”. I in fact served from 1961-1967 and in the USMC from 1969-1972. My point is that training conditions were extremely hard in those bleak days. By today's standards, we probably could have sued the Ministry of Defense. However, we were prepared for active service. May I add that when I was in Borneo during from 1962-1964, that the training, however severe it had been, paid off ... and I am alive thank God. Today, instructors only have to curse or swear at recruits and they are repremanded. I would imagine that the present state of affairs is that recruits undergo heavy duty training to combat what they face in the Middle East. Training staff must have a hard job with the restrictions placed on them. I would add that if these reports are founded, the officers and non-commissioned officers in charge should be brought to explain. As the marines, in particuliar over the last twenty years have done the UK proud, let's find out what happened instead of reporting negatively. I would also add the USMC traing was also severe in all aspects and that as an ex “Royal” the Corps should not be branded without a full investigation. I DO not need Mr. Phillips in his tendentious and patronising reply to my observations on the vexed tourism question, to tell me that “I fail to get his point, or do not want to”. Over the past few weeks, I have got it only too well! He keeps repeating, ad nauseam, his argument that Majorca needs “Quality Tourists” and that all-inclusive tourism is not doing Majorca any good. This, he hold to in spite of the fact I demonstrated that his ideas would lead to thousands, maybe millions of “Other Tourists” going elsewhere, correspondingly leading to vast numbers of Majorcan workers and businesses suffering. Mr. Phillips has not once refuted this, and has totally ignored these facts. All the Forums in the world cannot obscure the inescapable, unpalatable TRUTH. And I certainly do not think that I wish to have Mr.Phillips “Explain” to me what he has already uttered in the pages of this jounal. However, I see that Mr. Phillips has recanted somewhat with a “cop out” in his P.S. when he admits that package holidays are “good for the Island”. (MASS TOURISM?)!