22 SEPTEMBER 1961, Page 16

SIR,—Several people have written to you on the pre- dicament

of the unmarried mother: I feel I may have something to add, being one myself—although I have since married.

Brenda Leys, and not the other people and organ- isations she complains of, seems to me to have the Victorian outlook. The adoption society who advised the girl to keep her own baby can only be described as sensible. The nursing home staff who called her 'Mrs.' were merely doing their best to save her from embarrassment. Surely if they had insisted on calling her 'Miss' and not allowed her to see the baby she had borne she might equally have com- plained—with more reason? And may not the de- pression from which she is now suffering spring from something very natural—giving up her own baby?

'UNMARRIED MOTHER'