27 JULY 1944, Page 14

FACTS ABOUT COAL SIR,—Two facts that are sometimes forgotten in

considering the c situation are (t) that every year of working in any given colliery incrca the distance of the coal-face from the surface, and therefore also difficulties of extraction and time taken for conveyance to the surface (2) that owing to the high incidence of income-tax, the sum nominal paid to the miner (or any other worker) as wages, is a good deal higher t the sum which he finds in his pay packet.—Yours faithfully,

IRENE CLEPHAVE

12 Mordaunt House, Albion Avenue, London, S.W. 8.