Reading Mrs Ridgeway's letter (January 15), I was reminded of something concerning refugees witnessed by my mother.

A group of refugee women were sitting awaiting the allocation of food vouchers and accommodation in a British town.

Local women were avoiding them, some even pulling their own clothing closer to them as if the strangers might contaminate them somehow.

This behaviour was only curbed when a local woman reprimanded them for doing it.

The town was Shrewsbury. The refugees had all been bombed out of Coventry and the date was 1940. The woman who spoke up was, I am proud to say, my grandmother.

It seems to me that many of the British population hate the unfortunate, even among their own population.

-Mr G E Stround, Mayo Road, Brighton