SIR - The families of the Tipton Two are dismayed that their little darlings are in a prison camp in Cuba! They may be dismayed and I admit this does not happen to many young Brits abroad - so I will attempt to explain the problem to them.

These young scallywags were in Afghanistan. There was a war on. They were with al-Qaeda terrorists - the bad guys who wanted to kill American and British soldiers. The good guys caught them at it so they locked them up.

After the doors were locked, however, the poor dears were overcome by a sudden rush of patriotism and started shouting that they were British through and through and did not like the naughty Taliban.

Who are they trying to kid? What were they doing in Afghanistan during a war? An 18-30s trip to Costa Kandahar? I think not.

If our Government turns soft on them, Blair and Straw's brave words on terrorism will be proved to be so much hot air.

IF the Americans release them and IF they are allowed back into this country, they should be arrested immediately and tried as terrorists and traitors.

M Wood, Westercroft View, Northowram.

SIR - Thank you for highlighting the problem of two-year waits for digital hearing tests. However, I must emphasise two points.

First, I am not asking for any special treatment because of my position as chairman of Bradford Community Health Council. This is a national problem, and needs to be tackled nationally.

Secondly, however irritating it is to me, my hearing difficulties are minor compared with the daily problems suffered by Palestinians every day. Anyone needing health treatment has to cope with the fact that the entire infrastructure of Palestinian society is being systematically destroyed by the occupying army, and that of course includes their health services.

Ambulances are shot at, patients made to wait for hours at checkpoints in the hot sun, and since the sewers have been broken (I suspect, deliberately) by Israeli bulldozers, children play in the streams of untreated sewage.

I tremble to think how their shattered hospitals are going to cope with this serious epidemic in the making.

I shall be reporting back on my visit at St Paul's Church, Manningham, on Wednesday, August 21, at 7.30pm. There will be Urdu translation.

Karl Dallas, Church Green, Bradford 8

SIR - With reference to the missing schoolgirls Holly and Jessica, I have been pondering if something couldn't be done to stop this sort of thing happening again.

In this day of spy gadgetry would it not be feasible to make a small, reasonably-priced "bug" to be sewn into the favourite clothing of a child or in some kind of jewellery especially for young girls, which would give off a signal that police or helicopters or planes could pick up and give the position of the missing child?

Surely it is not beyond the bounds of someone with espionage technology to come up with some kind of small device.

N Brown, Peterborough Place, Undercliffe.

SIR - Can someone explain to me why, when a person commits a crime and is then bound to resign his job, he should be paid over £100,000 from public funds?

The recent action by Gurbux Singh, ex-head of the Commission for Racial Equality, at a cricket match, together with a comment from a fellow member of the CRE that "he should have been let off with a caution", does nothing for the cause of racial equality.

This only helps to confirm a widely-held view that the CRE is really just a Black and Asian pressure group; so perhaps it should drop the word "Equality" from its title.

Dave Murgatroyd, Briarwood Drive, Bradford 6.

SIR - I read with interest your article on St George's Hall.

How many of your readers know that as well as the features you mentioned, there is also a pipe organ installed there. This instrument has been sadly neglected, and must by now be in a sorry state.

It is a great shame this organ has never been renovated and played, like the ones in town halls in Leeds, Huddersfield and Ossett etc where recitals are regularly given.

Older readers will remember I'm sure the theatre organs in both the Ritz and Gaumont cinemas, and the pleasure they gave when played, but I expect this once-wonderful organ will turn to dust as have so many of Bradford's treasurers, and only when it is too late will we realise what has been lost forever.

Jame Jackson, Mill Lane, Birkenshaw.