In a letter last week your correspondent Mr A. McDonald expressed scepticism of my declared preference for high levels of social expenditure on the grounds that I did not express this view to the Royal Commission on Social Security.

My view in 'this' regard (as, I said in replying to Mr Wilson) is a personal view—a value judgement and other people will have different value judgements'.

Apart from the fact that I was talking about the wide field on collective social expenditure in general and not just about social security, I can see no earthly reason why my value judgements should have been pressed on the Royal Commission or should carry any more weight than anyone else's. The place for me to express my opinion or value judgements is as a voter, not as an economist.

There are of course special areas of expertise in this field concerned not with value judgements but with the financing, administration, and economic effects of social expenditure. They are not areas in which I possess special knowledge but there were people on the Commission and on its staff (including some from the University Department of Economics) who did have this knowledge and who were con—sequently less likely to waste the time of the Commission than I in advising in this specialist area.