13 FEBRUARY 1932, Page 16

BIRTH CONTROL .

[To the Editor of the Sr-ear/iron.]

Sin,—It is not, I think, necessary to write more than one final sentence in reply. to Sir James Merchant's letter. The problem of birth control is not, as he apparently conceives it to be, Whether the State should exercise restraint upon all prospec- tive parents, but whether it should refrain'from exercising any restraint upon those persons who, in consequence of physical or mental affliction, would, if they became parents, be bound to procreate such children as must surely, if slowly, deteriorate I he character of the race.-- I am; Sir, &e., J. E.-C. WELLDON.

The Deanery, Dn;•hum.