Dear Mr Gillies,
I have just been shown
your letter, submitted for publication two weeks after my initial
article appeared in the Guardian.
I would be very grateful
if you would allow me to circulate it to the thousands of
Jehovah's Witnesses who have contacted me since the articles
appeared because, if there was nothing secret about your
association with the Scarlet- Coloured Beast, I am surprised that
so many followers did not know of it, given the WTBTS's frequent
condemnation of the UN in its publications.
This may account for the
witnesses' feelings of betrayal and sense of hypocrisy over the
whole affair. If it was not secret and was only done to obtain a
library ticket,. why did you not tell me when I spoke to you
several days before the article appeared? Surely you would have
known it or could have found out very easily - most press officers
are able to do so.
And why did the WTBTS
decide to disaffiliate only two days after the article appeared,
when the WTBTS "learned about a situation" which was anyway not secret? Any organisation which affiliates to another
surely must know that it has to ascribe to its basic principles,
so to pretend that acceptance of the UN charter's aims has been suddenly sprung on you is being disengenuous at best.
As far as I can tell from
your letter there are no factual inaccuracies in my reports for
you have not pointed to any that you did not have the opportunity
to explain to me when we spoke. I don't think the letter will be
published. But then what would I know - I'm only bird seed in your demonology!
Best wishes,
Stephen Bates