6 MAY 1949, Page 20

LESS OF IT SIR, —On Friday, April 29th, a London daily

paper had the following heading: " Hospital Axe Means Less Beds." Does that mean smaller beds? Did the axe chop off the ends of the beds? It is a gloomy prospect. In the Press and over the radio " less " is replacing " fewer " until the latter is disappearing from our language. We are told of "less coupons," " less points," " less clothes " and so on. I think a word of