14 MARCH 1947, Page 18

POST OFFICE PROFITS

SIR,—If the Assistant P.M.G. is correctly reported as admitting in Par- liament recently a surplus in 1945-46 of,.no less than £36,000,000, what justification is there for keeping the charge for a single 2 oz. letter as

high as 21c1.? If business firms—and others are to continue to be taxed in this way (as are, for example, the buyers of whisky, the owners of dogs, the cinema-goer for a seat, etc.), let us have the arguments of the Government for such indirect taxation of the Postage A/c, but mean- time the gummed paper should be called a postal tax, and not a postage