LEGAL AID
SIR,—You have given powerful support to the Criminal Justice Bill on which a resolution was recently passed in the House of Lords, but two other measures of legal reform were mentioned in the debate on the King's Speech there on November 13th, namely the Crown Proceedings Bill and a Bill to implement the Rushcliffe Report on Legal Aid. Impor- tant though a Criminal Justice Bill is, it is surely more important from the point of view of "the greatest good of the greatest number" that facilities for legal aid (facilities which involve no " building programme") should be provided for the many decent men and women who at present lack them ; for members of the legal profession would be the first to admit that, in spite of the generous (and often little-known) services given by them, the existing facilities are sporadic and inade- quate. As any scheme of legal aid will probably depend largely on regulations and administrative arrangements which may take a little time to establish, this is an additional reason why every effort should be made to get what may be termed the enabling Act on the statute-
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