12 MAY 1933, Page 6

I have been trying to puzzle out Lord Eustace Percy's

suggestion that "the increase in the number of families is due to the simple arithmetical .fact that there are more women in the reproductive age-group than ever before." This looks interesting, but, after all, it takes two to make a family, one man and one woman. How does an increase in the number of worhen help if there are not enough men to go round—as there admittedly are not, there being close on two million more females than males in Great Britain at the 1981 census "? In those circumstances I should have thought the munber of families would be determined primarily by the number of men available. Given a surplus of women it surely matters little whether the surplus amounts only to x or to xd-y. Knowing Lord Eustace, I feel pretty sure there must be an answer to this, but I should he interested to know what it is.