YOUR correspondent J E Douglas (Readers' Letters, April 13) is not alone in wondering what has happened to the "stiff British upper lip", and the latest suggestion that the Iranian kidnap victims qualify for the VC is a travesty.

The captives say they are entitled to financial rewards because of their trauma - for example, solitary confinement for as long as three days at a time, and the fact that their captors made fun of them.

In the Korean war, the Chinese kept British POWs in solitary confinement for months, one officer for two years, but still they refused to co-operate. They were kept in holes in the ground with a bowl of rice per day.

As captives of the Japanese during the Second World War, British POWs endured five years of torture and hell; half died. On returning home, they had to fight for compensation from the Japanese government. Many died during their 11-year battle, but they won in the end. Like the Iranian captives, they got a financial reward: £76.

The Iranian captives claim they gave in because their captors pretended they were going to be shot. In the Second World War, some Germans, especially SS units, actually shot British POWs in front of their comrades to induce them to talk, but survivors still refused.

In this Iranian incident our naval top brass said: "It was a wise decision not to resist when outnumbered".

HMS Cornwall was the flagship of a taskforce of 12 warships including several helicopters: more than a match for Iranian gunboats.

It is a sad tale of incompetence and lack of spirit, leaving the British looking foolish and the Iranians triumphant, which means more trouble in future.

If this "surrender if outnumbered" policy had been in force in the war, I and many others would either now be dead or speaking German.

H Brown, Rillington, Malton.