PENNY PERRETT of Swallows Chase, Strete, writes:

I do not want to get into a long and involved correspondence concerning the refugees/ migrant situation. I merely wished in my previous letter, Gazette, November 20, to point out that the headline in the Gazette, November 13, which said those people – mostly young men – who have found their way to Calais cannot necessarily be ­classified as asylum seekers in need of Juliet’s charity.

They have found their way up through EU countries based on the Schengen Agreement to the French coast and presumably paid their way to get there. Their aggressive attitude when attempting to enter the UK ­illegally is chilling. The international law on asylum says ­asylum should be claimed at the first safe point reached – Greece. So it is in Turkey where many of them pay smugglers

to enable them to make the crossing to Greece.

The letter titled ‘We are aiding, not abetting’, Gazette, November 20, states that ‘those in charge of the security in this country have been seemingly inactive on this matter’. Not true. Of course we need to take people who are in terrible need and that is why our country has been giving millions in aid to those from Syria who are ­dispossessed and have fled to camps in Jordan and Yemen.

They have fled their country and need our help, which we are giving in aid and by relocating them to this country. They have been living in poverty and squalor for years. Why not ensure they receive sustenance through the many charities that can help those so desperately in need of food and warmth?

I realise that the images of the poor little boy who drowned at the Greek beach was heart-rending. The tragedy is all those children and women who have drowned as a result of the people smuggling from Turkey – note that they are nearly all women and children, not men.

Are you lovely and sympathetic ladies not aware that two of those involved in the horrific Paris bombings were young men who had made their way through Europe from the beaches of Greece, where they landed among the genuine migrants and refugees?

Does this not beg the question that we need to protect our families from the threat of terrorists who may come to the UK via Calais? It only needs a handful to create mayhem in our country. How many of you ladies would feel the way you do if your sons or daughters had lost their lives in the Paris attacks?

We are still in a state of high alert on the basis of a terrorist attack in this country, albeit not necessarily in this part of the world. These people are intent on setting up a caliphate, and have already started in Syria, with its antithesis to everything we hold dear, such as the rule of law, democracy, moral ­fortitude etc. How would you ladies feel if this was imposed in this ­country? Isis does not respect women. It would certainly be a lot worse than anything Hitler and his Nazi party could have subjected us to.

I have every sympathy that many feel the need to help those in distress. Women are natural nurturers. I am 73 years old and a great grandmother and have always nurtured and protected my family. That is why I am so afraid for the future of all of you. And that is why I think about this a lot.

We in this country have always given refuge to those in need and I thank God for that. We welcomed and helped many different ethnicities from Germany, Poland and other countries threatened by war during and after both the First and Second World Wars – and thank goodness we did. However, the threat we now face is completely different from that of previous conflicts.

These terrorists can secrete themselves among us and cause irreparable damage to innocent lives.

It will become clear soon whether the war in Iraq and Afghanistan was legal or not from the Chilcot Inquiry, but I cannot forget the horror of the pictures being broadcast of the twin tower disaster as it ­happened. That was before any intervention by the West in either Iraq or Afghanistan. That doesn’t include the attack in Nairobi in 1998 by al-Qaeda. So these terrorists were planning terror long before we ­intervened to prevent them.

We have to alert ourselves to the imminent and present ­danger we face. We simply ­cannot accept all and sundry into Europe on face value, even though most, I am sure, are ­perfectly innocent.

What I am saying is that charity is part of our psyche in this country, and long may it live; but please let it go to those who need it most – possibly not the young men who are most fit and able to make their way in life, such as those in Calais. And please let us be very careful for our children and their futures.