Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition — page 130: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

oe ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION with us. We think we have something the whole nation should see. What do you think?—Paul Rader, Prod-Dir, FRONTIER TO SPACE, KROD- TV, El Paso, Texas. It’s becoming more evident than ever that simple space-travel discussions no longer constitute science fiction. Dear Mr. Campbell : I note that in the letter section of your magazine mathematical puzzles of various kinds appear and wonder if you or some reader cguld supply the answer to one that has annoyed me for some considerable time. Given facts are as follows: Immedi- ately after the war, a part of the British army of occupation is stationed by a town. The rate of exchange of the mark is altering rapidly, and at this time the mark is not worth ex- actly the same in relation to the pound in the troops canteen as in the town. In the canteen forty marks are re- ceived for one pound, in the town forty two are received for one pound. One drink costs one mark in both places. A soldier, thirsty, but hard up, pawns an article to a friend for one pound, goes downtown, has one drink, and receives forty-one marks change. He returns to the canteen, has one drink, changes his remaining forty marks for a pound, and goes back to town. He repeats the process until he has had as much as he can hold, goes back to camp and redeems the pawned article with the pound received from the can- teen after his last drink, and proceeds to sleep it off. Question: who paid for the drinks? Also, may I take this opportunity to congratulate you on the improvement... in your magazine over the last few months : previously I was finding about one good story to an issue. I myself would like to see a few stories of the ““space-opera” kind, but one can’t have everything. I should like, how- ever, to emphasize that, while science fiction is rapidly growing into a literature, there is no need to publish stories comparable to the English literary classic.—C. B. Cach, Box 201, Christchurch, NEW ZEALAND. Well, how about it, you economists? Cconniclooolkks.c© im