I DO not know how the Dalai Lama was selected for the job at the age of two, nor to what extent the mature man is the product of nature or of nurture, but they could have done a hell of a lot worse, as certain other spiritual movements have, by using Western methods. Anyway, his recent meeting with President Obama did not necessarily constitute a violation of the USA’s pledge to refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of China.

If two Nobel Prize winners cannot get together for the occasional private chinwag about this, that and the other, what is the planet coming to?

Besides, one suspects that China’s indignation is about as sincere as it will be durable; they must pander to the masses, just in case they ever go democratic.

DAVID DIMENT, Riverside Court, Oxford