SIR,—It was with a wry face that I read in
the Spectator of August 19 the note by your contributor Custos on the prosperity of the banks. As a sep- tuagenarian pensioner I and others of my generation arc far from sharing such prosperity.
It is pleaded that the funds are not available to raise our peNons to something like equality with those which will be enjoyed by men who retire this year. The increase in dividends, lavish expenditure on bank premises up and down the country, coupled with the substantial rises in salary recently given to present members of the staff, cause considerable bitterness among the older pensioners.
We claim that we did much to lay the foundation of the present Masperity and now in our old age we are left helpless victims of inflation.—Yours faithfully, 6 Links Road, Parkstone. Poole, Dorset
H. C. DEERE