letters to the editor . directors &apos; rewards . Sir , - Mr Aucott ( August 21 ) implies that all expenses incurred by directors on behalf of their companies should be disclosed to shareholders . the law on this subject is perfectly equitable : if the expenses in question are disallowed by the Inspector of taxes - in other words , they were not wholly exclusively and necessarily incurred - then quite properly they are shown in the accounts under Directors &apos; emoluments . where , however , such expenses were wholly exclusively and necessarily incurred they were plainly not remuneration in the hands of the directors and can not therefore be shown as such in the accounts . Mr Aucott is not , I hope , suggesting that the standards of honesty in British companies today are such as to require that every penny spent by a director in performing his duties should be declared to the shareholders . J F Staddon , Secretary , institute of Directors . 10 , Belgrave Square , S.W.1 . exports on a plateau . Sir , - I feel that the letter from Mr E J Bunbury , August 22 , can not go unanswered . to begin with , Mr Bunbury assumes that the Chancellor &apos;s measures are sensible and correct and are likely to achieve the objects desired . it has been repeatedly pointed out that the Chancellor &apos;s measures to restrict sales in the home market in order to increase exports are quite mistaken and are having the opposite result . there is already ample statistical evidence available to prove this is the case . it is not correct to say that none of the Chancellor &apos;s critics have put forward a practical alternative . perhaps you would allow me to state the alternative which a considerable number of people believe infinitely preferable to the present patchwork and uneffective measures . the Chancellor must take steps to curtail inessential exports . it is perfectly ridiculous in the present serious situation to allow people to fritter away hard-earned foreign exchange on the purchase of rubbish and things we could perfectly well do without . the most effective way to achieve this would be to revive the control of availability of foreign exchange . indeed , the Chancellor is already doing this , but unfortunately , because he will not face up to the true issues involved , he is tackling it at the wrong end . he is cutting off availability of foreign exchange to people who would use it to create an overseas investment which would ultimately yield a return instead of cutting it off to people who would merely waste it in buying a lot of rubbish . N F T Saunders , managing director , Kelvinator . new Chester Road , Bromborough , Cheshire . butter dumping . Sir , - I was interested to read the article by your commercial editor on butter ( August 21 ) . I ought not to have to express my ignorance to such a degree , but I find it very difficult to understand how it is possible for another country to invoke anti-dumping legislation inside the U.K . surely the three sections primarily concerned are the citizens of this country in their dual capacity of taxpayers and consumers , together with our own farmers ? the point I really wish to make , though with great sympathy for both Denmark and New Zealand , is that anti-dumping legislation is primarily designed to protect a country &apos;s home industry , and it would be setting a most undesirable precedent if rival exporting countries and companies are permitted to apply for discriminatory action in their mutual overseas markets . should we join the common market , it is appreciated that dumping will be prohibited between members , but this is quite a different problem from that now raised by Denmark and New Zealand . M C Bentall . East Falinge , Bent Meadows , Rochdale . potato acreage . Sir , - Mr Merricks writes ( August 21 ) as a special member of the potato marketing board , and in that capacity he is well aware of the reasons why it is necessary to have quota restrictions on the planning of potatoes . to have violent fluctuations in the acreage , and consequently in prices , serves the interest neither of producers nor consumers , as was well shown in the years before the board was set up . of course it is not possible for the board , by its quota prescriptions , to plan for an exact acreage . there are too many factors which affect farmers &apos; own intentions for any quota laid down by a board , or by any other body , to do more than influence the position . but the board would surely be failing to carry out its responsibilities if it did not exercise the powers conferred on it by the potato marketing scheme to assist growers to plan their production from year to year at a level normally adequate to meet the consumers &apos; needs at reasonable prices . Mr Merricks is also aware that &amp;pound;1 m a year from the increased contributions would go to meet the board &apos;s share of the proposed market support fund and would attract twice that sum from the government . it would therefore get back to the producer in the form of higher prices for his crop in surplus years and should thus encourage greater stability in acreage and prices as between one year and another . it is difficult to see how amendments to the scheme which produced this result could be described as harmful . J E Piccaver , Chairman , basic acreage committee , potato marketing board . Norfolk House Farm , Gedney Marsh , Spalding . building bricks . Sir , - in reply to the article in the financial Times of August 3 re building bricks , the Scottish brick works have about 40 m composition bricks in stock , made without the help of foreign labour , and could produce more if need be . there is a freight opening for British railways , 120 m tons , if the price were right . composition bricks are imported from Belgium and distributed to various parts of England cheaper than the freight charge from Scotland to the south . G R Nicoll . 35 , Glenview Avenue , Banknock , by Bonnybridge . letters to the editor . the airlines . Sir , - with reference to your leading article of August 23 , the causes of airline troubles are surely simple to diagnose . in the long haul category the operating cost of the U.S big jets of just under 2 cents per seat mile is no improvement on existing types . it is not , therefore , possible to lower fares appreciably and so widen the market with these aircraft . basically the same trouble also applies to regional operations with the additional difficulty that the sectors are so short that the aircraft can not get down anywhere near to the best point on the range-cost graph . these airlines have ordered aircraft which only get down to the best position at 1,000 miles and in many cases the airlines do not have a single European sector approaching this . at 300-400 miles it is off the graph at the bottom end resulting in costs of 3 , 4 and 5 cents a seat mile . if the turbine engine and propeller had been configured differently , cost of 1.5 cents would have been realised , perhaps 1.2 with prospects of 1 cent on the horizon . so airlines have only themselves to blame if air does not secure a bigger part of the apparently static common carrier market due in turn to the growth of private carriers . airlines must surely get back to the principles of careful husbandry , and demand economic progression in the new vehicles they order . R G Worcester . 66 , Sloane Street , S.W1 . economies in drugs . Sir , - in the outpatient departments of many hospitals , the habit survives of prescribing small quantities of drugs , bandages , etc , which have to be collected at the hospital dispensary . frequently , the charge for these prescriptions is considerably higher than the cost at which they can be bought at the chemists . in addition , patients have often to wait a long time , up to two hours , for the dispenser to prepare the prescription . issuing such small prescriptions , which of course were originally free , in the hospital might have made sense when outpatients were presumably paupers to whom a saving of a few pence was material , and to whom time was of little value . to-day , the N.H.S , the over-worked dispenser and last but not least the patient , who may lose wages while waiting , would be better off if the latter were simply instructed to obtain small quantities of simple supplies at the chemists . it is , of course , not suggested that this method should be applied to complicated special prescriptions on which the effort of the hospital dispensary freed from petty orders could be concentrated . Hans A Blum . 7 , Holders Hill Avenue , N.W.4 . cost of H.P . Sir , - I presume that Mr G H Woolveridge &apos;s letter ( August 23 ) is written in his official capacity , and it is for this reason that I do not think it should be allowed to pass without comment . firstly , what does it cost a motor trader to assist in filling up an H.P form and posting it ? bearing in mind the profit he is making on the sale of the car I would have thought that he would be delighted to do the work for nothing , especially as he would be unable to sell the car if the finance was not forthcoming . secondly , the 10 per cent he receives is excessive . thirdly , if business is on recourse , in what way does the finance house share the risk ? fourthly , in my opinion H.P charges have gone up by 1 1/2 per cent flat even though commission has gone down . fifthly , can Mr Woolveridge publish the rebate scales used by F.H.A members and state that they adhere to them ? I doubt it . at least one F.H.A member charges many &amp;pound;s extra for early settlement where no new business arises , and it is simply not true to say that finance houses would lose money if they gave a bigger rebate in such cases . sixthly , his penultimate paragraph suggests that banks when offering personal loans have no paper work , no collecting and recording of monthly instalments and do not have to make provision for bad debts or make enquiries about the integrity and standing of their customers . J E Foster . 26 , Boyle Avenue , Stanmore . polythene bags . Sir , - the rapid increase in the use of thin polythene film has added another home hazard against which precautions should be taken , in order to avoid accidents as a result of misuse of the material . this applies particularly to children , in that they can become suffocated if polythene bags are placed over their heads . this association through its polythene product committee has collaborated with the ministry of health and the royal society for the prevention of accidents , in order to determine methods of publicising both the dangers and the recommended preventive measures . polythene film has certain characteristics which make it an excellent packaging material for a wide variety of applications . in many forms , such as small bags , there is no need for any particular precautions , but with larger bags and sheets , and in particular where film is used as a cover for mattresses and pillows , the material should not be left on the articles when they are in use . it is realised that such bags , and also those used for the packaging of a large number of garments , are useful in the home . if , therefore , these bags are retained , in order to use them from time to time for storage purposes , they should be kept out of the reach of children . if , however , they are not required for storage purposes , it is the recommendation of the film manufacturers , and the above mentioned bodies , that they should be disposed of immediately out of the way of children . A R Thom , Chairman , packaging films manufacturers &apos; association . P.O box 121 , 301 , Glossop Road , Sheffield 10 . exports of capital . Sir , - it is evident that the succour provided by the I.M.F merely cancels some of our short-term liabilities to foreign countries , transfers them to the I.M.F , but correspondingly reduces the possibility of gold losses from British reserves . let us have no illusions about this Monte de Pieta , and hope that the cold storage period will be long enough . for the future , it is important that any move on the part of British industry to establish factories in hard currency countries as a result of the impetus set in motion by entry into the common market should not constitute a further drain on reserves . 