The figure of 1,225,000 letters a month covers the whole of the Board of Trade's correspondence, including statistical returns and applications for licences, patents, payment of war damage, and so forth. I regret that I can give no estimate of the over-all cost of answering this correspondence, since the proportion of staff time devoted to this purpose varies so widely according to subject. The cost incurred by the Board for letter paper, envelopes and postage is estimated at about £105,000 a year.