I am sure many people will have been disgusted to have read (The Argus, June 27) that the Government has decided to nullify, by using the Royal Prerogative, the High Court ruling made in November 2000, which found that the legal procedures used to exile the Diego Garcians from their homeland were unlawful.

As the counsel appearing for Louis Bancoult, the Diego Garcian who brought the case against the Government, Sir Sydney Kentridge, QC, has rightly pointed out there is absolutely no precedent in British history for the Royal Prerogative to be used in this way.

The treatment of the islanders, who hold British passports, by successive British governments at the bidding of the US, has been underhand and shameful.

As loyal subjects of the crown, they have the right to live in peace and

pursue their own way of life.

I wish them success in their continuing campaign for justice and look forward to the day when they can return home and rebuild their lives, which have been so arbitrarily taken from them.

-Rev John Webster, Hove