Angel Topped

Sirs: For a heinous-looking human being, the record was held until the Dec. 22 issue of TIME by "The Angel" (wrestler) when Admiral Yamamoto topped him badly on front cover. GORMAN L. BURNETT Lynchburg, Va.

Sirs: The front cover picture on TIME, Dec. 22 is the most inhuman likeness of Homo sapiens I have ever seen. . . . R. N. CLARK Ponca City, Okla.

Sirs: Since early childhood I have had very definite ideas of just what Satan looks like. All my ideas are personified in your cover of TIME, Dec. 22. I really admire strength of character but Yamamoto is one to scare little children. . . . RUTH COLE Blackwell, Mo.

Sirs: Suggest that you refrain from using TIME'S important front cover for likenesses such as that of the yellow ape on your issue of Dec. 22. ... EDWIN DREXEL GODFREY Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y.

Sirs: Your magnificent picture, even if it was of a mad dog, was magnificent and a credit to the artist. . . . CHAS. J. CAMPBELL Seattle, Wash.

Correction

Sirs: TIME, Dec. 8: "Everything was ready. From Rangoon to Honolulu, every man was at battle station. . . ." TIME evidently "erred" in this article and the writer trusts that you will retract this statement in an early issue. . . . ALLISON F. KELSEY Gunner, U.S. Navy, 1918 Montclair, NJ.

> TIME, Dec. 8, erred. TIME, Dec. 15 ("The U.S. Navy was caught with its pants down. . . .") made correction.--ED.

Exceedingly Offensive

Sirs: The news that Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado was called off for patriotic reasons surprised me mightily. In the first place it has no trace of Japanese or pseudo-Japanese music except the chorus Miya Sama, Miya Sama. ... In the second place, the whole opera is exceedingly offensive to all Japanese because of its flippant treatment of their divine Mikado. . . . So let's not deprive ourselves of some fine entertainment and a chance to insult the Japs. . . . J. C. THOMPSON Borinquen Field, P.R.

Rules of Thumb

Sirs: Your warning in TIME, Dec. 22, that the "few rules of thumb" listed for telling Chinese from Japanese are "not always reliable" is an unparalleled masterpiece of understatement. Such absurd generalities as "Japanese are nervous in conversation, laugh loudly at the wrong time," or "most Chinese avoid horn-rimmed spectacles" would have certainly made the eminent Dr. Samuel Johnson apoplectic. ... I feel the appropriateness of an admonishing Tsk ! Tsk ! MARTIN J. KATZ Philadelphia, Pa.

> Having noted that there is no infallible way of telling Chinese and Japanese apart by face, physique or mannerism, TIME felt justified in giving such general distinctions as are backed by authoritative anthropological opinion and by lay observers who have studied the Oriental races closely. If, as several TIME readers have pointed out, patriotic Japanese-Americans do not deserve to be harassed, neither do Chinese mistaken for Japanese by inflamed Americans. For trustworthy criteria having to do with names and feet, see below.--ED.

Sirs: Years ago, when we were both students at Cornell, the present Chinese Ambassador gave me a simple and unfailing rule for telling our loyal friends from Japanese: Chinese have monosyllabic, Japanese polysyllabic names. This test is far easier than calipers. . . . J. V. DEPORTE New Lebanon Center, N.Y.

Sirs: Throughout the Chinese Empire there are thousands of Japanese engaged in subversive activities who are masquerading as true Chinese. Long residence in China and careful preparation for this role have equipped them so well that even the specially trained Chinese have difficulty in determining their true nationality. But once suspicious they employ a test that seldom fails. They take off the Chinese cloth slippers that the suspect invariably wears and examine his feet, paying particular and expert attention to ... the distance between! the great toe and its next neighbor. This telltale space is the result of wearing Japanese sandals which have a small strap between, the first and second toes. These sandals are never worn by Chinese and always by Japanese children during the period of development. CHRISS MARTINDALE Hot Springs, Ark.

Low Amperage

Sirs: Interesting is Dec. 15 TIME'S article ora welding, including development of rod-coating protection by Milwaukee's A. O. Smith Corp. But overlooked by TIME is another important development by Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co.-low amperage arc welding, which has opened hitherto closed fields to arc welders.

First to employ current as low as five amperes, it has made possible arc welding of materials as thin as 32-gage* and of aluminum and other light metals without heat discoloration or distortion. Low amperage for arc welding was obtained through revolutionary use of mercury vapor rectified tubes. Rapidly has this type of arc welding taken its place in the nation's vital aircraft industry because welding of all types of aircraft tubing is possible. Army and Navy Air corps, as well as the Civil Aeronautics Administration, have approved low-current arc welding. . . . WALTER GEIST Vice President Allis-Chalmers Mfg. Co. Milwaukee, Wis.

> TIME'S story in its brief compass did not undertake to cover all recent developments in welding. To Allis-Chalmers and several other companies goes credit for improvements of many kinds.--ED.

Line of the Year

Sirs: I submit my nomination for "the line of the year," the concluding sentence of the arti cle "Routine Declaration," TIME, Dec. 22: "Thus, as it must to all good peoples, war with the Nazis came to the U.S." JEROME SCHEUER Brookline, Mass.

"My Little Saw"

Sirs: TIME, Dec. 22: "Some misguided Washing ton patriot, unable to get at the Japs, emulated the Father of his Country and chopped down four of the lovely Japanese cherry trees along Washington's Tidal Basin."

No anti-Axis axman he,

Who sawed down that cherry tree.

Washington's feat, he could match it

If next time he'd use a hatchet.

Or had Washington told his irate paw,

"Dad, I did it with my little saw."

JOHN W. MCMURRAY JR. Springfield, Ill.

> To Reader McMurray and some 40 others who detected the work of a saw rather than a chopping instrument (see cut), a sugarplum for sharp-eyed scrutiny.--ED.

*.01015625 inch.

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