22 NOVEMBER 1940, Page 18

ON SLEEPING IN BED

Sta,—I cordially support Miss Rose Macaulay's letter. I have slept on the first floor of my house in St. John's Wood ever since the war began and intend to continue doing so. At one time some of my domestic staff slept in a basement room; but they have since decided to follow my example, especially as there is more chance of being buried alive than killed outright in a basement room. There is no reason, however, why people who want to sleep in shelters should not do so, although quite a number of people have been killed in shelters.

What does put grit into the wheels of everything is the behaviour of the Post Office. It is maddening to have the whole routine of the day upset by these delays and to have a whole bundle of letters which should arrive by first post thrown at one in the late afternoon when we are all hoping to get back. Even as it is many of the letters are three days old. I believe that Post Office workers are given no chance of working during the Alert, but as a taxi-driver said to me the other day, "If I did not work all the time I should not be able to support myself," and it is only the Civil servant who has the privilege of being paid whether he works or not.—Yours, &c.,

9 New Square, Lincoln's Inn, W.C.2. E. S. P. HAYNES.