I find this fancy that has taken the Ministry of
Labour for flinging about pound notes, almost like pool-promoters, a little odd. The Ministry wants (as basis for a new cost-of- living index) to know what every member of 20,000 families spends on food, clothes, entertainment and various other necessities or luxuries. So it is asking them. It began last Monday. Form-filling is, of course, of the essence of the enterprise, but form-filling is child's play to any mentis cornpos citizen by this time. Every form-filler who fills his form creditably will get £1 from the Minister. Well, no doubt the tax-payer who stands so much can stand that. But one thing I regret. My great-grandfather had twenty-three children. If there had been a Ministry of Labour in his day I might have inherited wealth. * * *
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