11 OCTOBER 1940, Page 13

SIR,—There is a passage in the letter, contributed by Mis'

Alison Neilans to the correspondence headed "An Anzac in England," pub- lished in your last issue, on which, with your permission, I should like to comment. Miss Neilans refers to the " British system" of dealing with venereal disease and the genera, effect of her remarks is to give the impression that the system is confined to " providing free, voluntary and confidential treatment.' The truth is that no system which ignores prevention can be either complete or satisfac- tory. Had Miss Neilans added to the adjectives free, voluntary and confidential" in the sentence quoted above the euphemistic and utterly misleading one favoured by the War Office, namely, "early," before the word treatment, whilst to the uninitiated this description of the British system would have been misleading, it would have been more truly descriptive of official methods.—Yours faithfully, Ivoa C. LEWIS, Secretary.

National Society for the Prevention of Venereal Disease, 49 Nassington Road, N.W. 3.

[This correspondence is now closed.—En., The Spectator.]