5 NOVEMBER 1943, Page 12

A QUESTION OF CADENCE Sm,—Not being a Member of Parliament,

I cannot rise to ask the Prime Minister whether he can forgive the Hon. Member for West Leicester for quoting him as having said that " never in the long history of human conflict have so many owed so much to so few." But, as a devoted admirer of Harold Nicolson's own prose, may I not ask him whether he can forgive himself for not having written " has so much been owed by so many to so few " ? For this has a noble and a classic cadence ; whereas the other is joggety-jogget and tumpty-tum.—Yours obediently,