Sir, At the foot of his page (June 2) Christopher Gray takes an anonymous correspondent to task for failing to understand the correct use of the apostrophe in "its" and "it's".

Although the writer did not use green ink, it is unlikely that anyone bold enough to criticise your communist's punctuation should be so ignorant of such a basic rule.

More likely he was referring to the convention that "it's" is not used in writing except when directly reporting speech. I agree with the "phew". Using "it is" would be instantly comprehensible without the need for any second look and is more in accordance with traditional English usage.

R Hedges, Oxford