thanks Anotoliy, I've tried it pretty much the way you suggest and receive alternating errors of 123 ( the one you mention ) and 2273 which is: "The message alias could not be found on the network". In desperation I tried writing it in C and it worked - so I think your Unicode theory may be on track, however I don't know how to get around it , any ideas ?
regards
Pete Kane
Regards,
Peter J. Kane
Pete