11 APRIL 1952, Page 5

Members of my profession, it would seem, have voracious appetites

for other things than news: or perhaps that characteristic is confined to my friend H. B. and his Press Gallery colleagues. It was stated in the House of Commons on Monday by the Chairman of the Kitchen Committee that losses sustained per meal during the time the House was sitting in 1951 were, in the Members' rooms 5d.; in the public rooms 41.4.; in the Press rooms 3s.—all approximately. This is an astonishing disparity, and there is nothing in the known habits of journalists to account for it. Why no supplementary was asked about it I can't imagine. Time was when the hungry Gallery-Man would slip down and regale himself on one of Bellamy's mutton-pies like the members for Grampound or Old Sarum. That, clearly, fails to satisfy him now.