TAVISTOCK Town Council were quite right in refusing to associate themselves with yet another ?Peacenik? movement, who would no doubt protest against the invention of the longbow and the musket had they been around! The debate over the use of the atomic bomb on Japan will probably go on for ever. Personally, I think it was right, but the reason for this letter is to point out to these ?Ban the Bomb? types that now it is here you cannot un-invent it or forget how it is made. Even if all nuclear weapons were scrapped, a country that found itself under threat would soon apply their stored knowledge and start making them again. So, in a way, nuclear weapons have actually become the biggest peacekeeper of all time. If you don?t believe this, ask yourself this question: would Iraq have been invaded of it was known that they had a serious ICBM capability and could hit the USA? Not a chance! Paul Mercer Ivy Cottage Peter Tavy WITH regards to the letter from the Ray-Joneses of September 28. If they are so concerned about atrocities, why not look at the Rape of Nanking 1937, where over 300,000 men, women and children were killed by the Japanese. Over 80,000 women were raped. Or how about the war in the Far East 1942-45. Of the 130,000 prisoners of war taken by the Japanese, 27% were killed, over 35,000 plus over 100,000 native labaourers forced to work. All this without any help from atom bombs. If the Allies had invaded Japan, orders had been give to kill all pows in captivity. I think Japan got off quite lightly in the circumstances. The bomb saved many Allied lives; but are they having a go at the Americans, it?s quite fashionable at the moment. I suggest they join the ?real? world. We are surrounded by ?Nutters? who we must be protected from; as well you ?turn the other cheek? as you put on your ?hair shirt?. Paul Hunter Cox Tor Road Tavistock YOUR report (September14) of a recent meeting of the town council?s finance committee described how the committee rejected a proposal to associate the council with the international organisation, Mayors for Peace. The report stated that this decision ?was due to be ratified by the full council?. I would like to know whether the full council has, in fact, approved the committee?s decision. Mayors for Peace was initiated by the mayor of Hiroshima in 1982 and registered as a United Nations NGO in 1990. This month it received a peace prize from the International Peace Bureau, which works towards ?sustainable disarmament for sustainable development?. One might have thought that our town council would be proud to associate itself with such a movement. Ginny Davies 9 Churchill Road Tavistock