  The VPN Tree Routing Conjecture states that there always exists an optimal
solution to the symmetric Virtual Private Network Design (sVPND) problem where
the paths between all terminals form a tree. Only recently, Hurkens, Keijsper,
and Stougie gave a proof of this conjecture for the special case of ring
networks. Their proof is based on a dual pair of linear programs and is
somewhat in- volved. We present a short proof of a slightly stronger conjecture
which might also turn out to be useful for proving the VPN Tree Routing
Conjecture for general networks.
