3 NOVEMBER 1923, Page 13

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I observe in Mr.

Arthur Kitson's letter to you last week the statement that I have estimated the national wealth for 1920 at 30,000 million £. I should like to assert emphatically that I have never at any time made such an estimate. On the contrary I have, on various occasions (e.g., the Newmarch Lectures and evidence before the War Wealth Committee), strongly deprecated all such inflated and exaggerated figures. I have done all I can to show that the increase in the national wealth is far less than is com- monly supposed and, for reasons which I need not detail

here, not in proportion to the increase in prices. In Wealth and Taxable Capacity (1921) I dealt with the matter at some

length, and concluded with the following words :—

" While I prefer to give no estimate of capital wealth at the present time for the reasons stated, I should like to add that, in my judgment, it cannot exceed 19 to 20,000 million £, and is probably much less."

Tantallon, Park Hill Road, Shortlands, Kent.