3 OCTOBER 1958, Page 21

THE POPULATION PROBLEM

SIR.—We are told by statisticians that, if the present increase of the human race continues, there will by a stated year be one square yard of the earth's land surface for each individual. I have recently read a book about a remote part of Central Africa. The author• found no old people in the villages and he

was told that as the not could not maintain anyone who could not do a day's work it had always been the custom to dispatch men and women when their strength began to fail and eat them.

This solution of the problem may not appeal to more civilised people, but at a not very distant date the human race will have to decide' whether the birth rate is to be arrested or this efficacious tribal custom is to be adoptcd.—Yours faithfully,