6 JANUARY 1939, Page 27

"WHO'S WHO" - [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—We

would not appear ungrateful for Janus's pleasant reference to us in " A Spectator's Notebook," nor. wish to flaunt our impenitence, but we would say respectfully that while a more drastic rationalising of the Who's Who biographies would reduce the book's extent by surprisingly little, it would diminish to vanishing point the humanity and vivacity for which the volume is commonly said to be remarkable among works of reference. The constant users of Who's Who are a very diverse public, and information considered superfluous by one is indis- pensable to another. Moreover, character comes out in a man's account of himself. We venture to doubt whether the yardstick is generally applied to Who's Who biographies as a measure of greatness, as you infer ; yet perhaps we are wrong for, with the creation of Grossdeutschland, Adolf Hitler has increased his entry from less than half an inch in 1938 to 2i inches in the current edition.—Yours faithfully,