Letter: Museum Charges
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Your support makes all the difference.Sir: For the directors of the Natural History Museum and three other museums to assert (letter, 29 November) that there is no statistical evidence to support the view that admission charges deter visitors, and that the figures quoted in David Lister's report are "fictitious", impugns officers of their own museums.
The figures quoted in our survey were checked and counter-checked with all national museums, with figures reported by successive governments and in the House of Commons this year. There may well be a margin of error in estimating visitor numbers without a ticketing system, but it is as likely to be under as over in any system dependent on the eye and hand. The fact remains that only now, when it is convenient for their argument, do the directors damn it.
The Earl of CLANCARTY
Lord FREYBERG
House of Lords
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