2 MARCH 1962, Page 14

WINE, WOMEN AND BEER

SIR,--After the sparkling pint produced by Katharine Whitehorn it must seem like serving up very flat beer to point out that beer sales have not 'been rocketing down since before the war.' But output in fact has risen from just above 900m. gallons a year to 1,000m.

As she says, brewers have encouraged the trend toward versatile pubs and the 'Cliestertonian ideal of the pub as a family place has largely come about.' Yet all this has in the main helped and not hindered sales of beer. Fewer people are drinking a lot of beer but fewer are drinking none at all; and many more, women among them, are drinking a little.

What the pub means to the community nowadays is suggested by the figure for average individual beer consumption. It works out at a half-pint every day of the year for every man and woman in the country. F. A. CHARLIER Secretary National Trade Development Association,

42 Portman Square, WI