5 JULY 1940, Page 17

TOO FEW CHILDREN"

Sia,—While it is evidently true that the immediate cause of the collapse in France is "too few tanks and too many traitors," it is also true that there have for several generations been too few children. One sees this in the hopeless outlook, the elderly nervousness and defeatism, the purely defensive strategy which have rotted the successive Govern- ments and the higher command.

Take no risks, hoard all money, have few or no children, keep com- fortable. That is the attitude, and there is too much of it in our own country. Heaven send we have not developed the same rot of treachery—it yet remains to be seen. PHYLLIS M. THOMAS. Westcote, Kingham, Oxford.