Your unsigned piece, entitled Class War on Lewes Road (The Argus, May 28) was poorly written and unfairly vilified the police, in particular the specials, which included my grandfather.

Having said they had been dubbed the Black and Tans by the strikers from the 1926 General Strike, the it later said "the Black and Tans and the regular police were given certificates", which is biased, isn't it?

The mounted specials were clad in normal, blue police uniform, with peaked caps, and were unarmed, except for a standard-issue police baton and a truncheon. The horses were unprotected and my grandfather's sustained a nasty injury.

Their principal function was to protect the food distribution depot, which had been established at Preston Barracks across the road.

Volunteer drivers had been bringing badly needed supplies of food into the town to help relieve shortages designed to foment unrest.

The hostile crowd, clearly infiltrated with agitators from outside the town, within yards of the food depot, would have been of concern to the Chief Constable.

Had the depot been occupied, the next step could have been for the emboldened leaders to storm the barracks.

As it was, the unarmed police - after four warnings - dispersed them, making only 22 arrests, without a single fatality.

To say the sentences were harsh is a bit steep. Six months' hard labour for crimes which could have encompassed GBH, affray, assault, riotous assembly and incitement to riot, sounds particularly lenient under the circumstances.

-N F Green, Burgess Hill