GORDON Cann in his letter (We must learn from Battle of the Somme, May 11) needs to delve further into the history of the EU before attempting to turn it into another frantic publicity stunt for the STAY campaign.

If the STAY campaign is so convinced about the virtue of the EU, why do only 28 nations of the 47 European nations listed as national members of the Council of Europe want to remain within that bureaucratic nightmare?

The forerunner to the EU was the Common Market which came into existence in 1958 with only six members. There has been no war between European countries from 1945 to 1956 except for the Hungarian revolution.

To claim the EU is the sole guarantor of peace is an extreme exaggeration.

It is Nato that was founded in 1949 and dominated by the USA and not the EU that has actually kept the peace in Europe.

A major test of the EU’s ability to keep the peace was the breakup of Yugoslavia.

It was EU interference that helped trigger a major civil war and its dithering contributed to the deaths of 100,000 people.

It was only decisive action by Nato that stopped the violence and brought about peace with the US-brokered Dayton Agreement.

MIKE FRY

Moorland Crescent, Upton, Poole

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