2 OCTOBER 1936, Page 21

THE PRICE OF DEMOCRACY

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The Spectator's " News of the Week " remark that Communism is probably gaining ground in this country. The article entitled The Price of Democracy " is an example of one of the reasons of Communism's growth.

The smug suggestion that the " healthy discipline " of a labour camp is preferable to dogs, cup-ties and dirt tracks is redolent of a bland disregard of the kindred vices entailed in the pursuit of bridge, polo and race-horse dealing. Your contributor sows the seeds of Communism when he assumes that a shilling wasted at a dirt-track is a sin but that £50,000 wasted on race-horses is permissible. He never doubts that money can do no wrong and it is only poverty which needs control and discipline.

So long as our social values, actions and legislation are judged and implemented by the need to control poverty instead of ending it then Communism and its attendant Fascism will proceed towards rending England as they have rent Spain. GLADYS BING. The Greenwood, Sandy Lane, Oxted.