26 FEBRUARY 1954, Page 14

But in most cases an incumbent is pater/au/Was. And most

of the people who care at all wish him to be so. By all means let a celibate minister embrace poverty, or at any rate the ' insecurity' of the weekly wage earner; but if the clergy are to be both married and of good education is it unreason- able for them to wish for their wives and children * standards ' approximating to those of their own earlier days ? It may be so, but in that case the shortage of priests is under- standable enough. For the nation cannot eat its cake and have it.—Yours faithfully, R. R. SAVILL.