12 OCTOBER 1962, Page 9

Skeleton in the Cigarette Case

I am all for people being warned against the possible consequences of smoking too many cigarettes, but some of the propaganda at present being put out to this end seems to me likely to make the whole business a little ridiculous. For that reason I applaud the action of London Transport in modifying a St. Pancras and Holborn Borough Council poster by cutting the death's head out of it. No doubt there are also deaths from cirrhosis of the liver, but one's belief in them was if anything lessened by those pictures of diseased sections of the anatomy which temperance organisations used to tote around. In fact, I am not sure that this kind of thing is the business of borough councils at all. It would be better if the Ministry of Health were to issue a poster itself. Then we might get less exaggeration and more effect on the rational passer-by.

QUEEQUEG