I notice from the usual suspects' letters that the HMS Dread Nought has been replaced in Kiwi affections by the USS Terrified Of Everything.

For M Hills' information (‘Why invite problems here?', November 10) her attitude is an exact replica of the shoguns following the arrival of the Portuguese and the Dutch in Japan. After tolerating them for many years, the shogun closed Japan to all foreigners, which meant Japan was completely unprepared when Commander Perry made that impossible.

With respect to B Johnson (‘Help for refugees', November 10) I wonder if he would consider the vast number of New Zealand citizens who have used the NZ educational system to start careers which then led them overseas to have committed an outrageous and ungrateful abuse of NZ social services? E.g. Kiri Te Kanawa? Neil Finn? It sounds like that's what he's saying.

It really needs a Noel Coward to do it justice – ‘Hurray! Hurray! Hurray! Trouble is on the way'.

W Parish, Bellevue (Abridged).