Letter: Cultural genocide

Sir: I refer to your article "Australia accused of cultural genocide" (13 April) about how half-caste children used to be taken from their parents and brought up in white institutions, in the name of assimilation. A similar policy was followed with regards to Indians in Canada, even as late as the Fifties. Indian children who were deemed "neglected" were taken away from their parents and brought up by white families. No matter how loving those families might have been, the policy understandably caused much bitterness.

We are always doing that sort of thing to the "benighted heathens". During the recent troubles in Rwanda, the French are reported to have airlifted 1,000 Rwandan babies to a "better" life in France, and now their relations are presumably looking for them.

Yours faithfully,

MIKAEL GRUT

London, SW19