21 FEBRUARY 1969, Page 27

Thank you for sending me the enclosed further letter from

Mr Pixie. Dear Hobgoblin, 19 October 196- Mr Pixie argues that the omission of eleven days appears to diminish the life-span of an individual by that amount, and asks how one can be sure this is not so. I hope you will pass on to him my assurance that a Statute cannot diminish the life-span of an individual, which depends on wholly different factors.

Mr Pixie goes on to point out that even if one accepts that the day which follows another day is the same day as the day that would have followed it if the calendar had not been reformed, many people cannot be expected to grasp this. The consequent sense of loss, he considers, may well be as serious psychologically as the loss itself would be.

I appreciate Mr Pixie's concern for people who feel this. There is, however, nothing to prevent them from using the old calendar if they wish to do so.

Yours ever, ANTHONY WRAITH