18 JULY 1931, Page 18

Will you allow me to tender my sincere apologies to

Mi. E. R. McGregor for having unwittingly offended him ? I admit freely that I have never heard Americans using the words of which he complains. But I think he might have given me credit for attempting to poke fun at those English writers who

invariably exaggerate when describing Americans and trying to make them talk. It was necessary to make the central figure of my story an American in order to make ,play with the

word " help." We do not call servants " helps ' in this coun- try ; but even Mr. McGregor will admit that the word is often used in that sense in the United States.—L. V. UPWARD, Hampstead.