I READ the Soapbox contribution by Philip Roe (Letters, June 15) with incredulity.

Are we still so stuck in the past and so arrogant as to believe that other nations and peoples did not matter as this reader would have us to think? No!

We live in a world where we recognise the feelings of others and this word is no longer acceptable as it offends many of our fellow human beings.

To change the dog’s name to Digger is a sign that we care about others and surely that cannot be a bad thing.

Martin Nelson, A visitor from Kenya, Ennismore Gardens, London SW7.

• SOME years ago I met an RAF officer who was, shall we say, non-white (Name change messes with history, Letters, June 14). He was accompanied by a black Labrador which he had named Gibson.

Mike Usherwood, Mendip Close, Huntington, York.