25 JANUARY 1957, Page 17

SIR,—I read with great interest Sir Edward Boyle's views on

the cutting of defence expenditure. Does this mean a corresponding reduction of the per- manent Civil Service? Without a substantial reduc- tion of these absurd numbers, which at present stand around the 660,000 mark, nothing great can be achieved. One feels that Ministers are now no longer responsible for their departments, but that the de- partments are more responsible for the Ministers.

Union Society, Oxford.