MADAM, Ancient Sumer on the Euphrates, our earliest grass-growing civilisation, came unstuck about 4000 years ago because it had rotted economically from within. There was nothing to be gained by blaming it on the desert Semites who were scratching together Babylon further north — they were simply filling a vacuum. I believe the Babylonian's name was Hammurabi. The only salvation for Sumer would have been to work out correctly what had gone wrong in Sumer and try to fix it.

In each Sumerian town one man had been given charge of the canals and then been made chief priest of the temple. I believe the problem arose from storing all the grain for next season in the temple. And I seem to remember suggesting, about ten years ago when the Ross enhancement Scheme was in progress, that we should fix the drains before we planted the monkey-puzzles.

We could now make a very long list of what has gone wrong with the economic viability of Ross and I suggest we try to do something about this rather than trying to undermine folk who are still managing to make a go of it in the outlying desert.

K Horne, Gorsley