Ham or Homicide

Sirs: TIME, April 13, arrived in the mails today, and the reference to the production of Ten Nights in a Barroom at Camps Lee and Eustis has been read with great interest by the members of the Honolulu Community Theater who have been touring the camps on Oahu with the same melodramatic masterpiece ever since the war started. However, we have come to the conclusion that the experiences of this rival company must be pretty small potatoes compared with ours.

About a week after the Pearl Harbor incident, a group of Honolulu Community Theater veterans assembled to get the play in shape. Dramatic careers being strictly extra curricular in Hawaii, the cast includes several university professors, a protege of Martha Graham, and even a couple of censors. . . . Nightly rehearsals were held in a windowless prop room, and because of the strict blackout and curfew orders, special passes had to be issued to get the actors through a line of itchy-fingered sentries each night.

Early in the run, we gave a performance in the open-air theater at Pearl Harbor. Throughout the entire show, heavy bombers flew at an altitude of about 75 yards directly over the heads of the audience and landed across the road at Hickam Field. For another performance, the cast had to travel part way by jeep, by motor launch across Pearl Harbor, then a jaunt by miniature railroad, and finally by army trucks. Once arrived . . . we gave the show on a stage composed of dinner tables. When we do a show at night we usually travel in a convoy of army trucks and have a blanket night pass for the whole troupe. Several weeks ago, returning from Wheeler Field, the truck in which I was riding got lost in the blackout and strayed from the convoy.

We were soon stopped and hauled into the Pearl City jail and held as decidedly suspicious characters. Last Sunday we gave our 23rd performance of Ten Nights, with others booked for the near future. Next Sunday, through the courtesy of Messrs. Lindsay and Grouse to the men in the front line of defense, 2,000 sailors will see practically the same cast give the first non-professional production of Arsenic & Old Lace. Now when some branch of the armed services in Hawaii wishes to be entertained, we rub our hands with servile glee and say, "What'll it be, boys--ham or homicide?"

NORMAN J. WRIGHT Honolulu, T.H.

Benton Defended

Sirs: One shudders for the outcome of the war and despairs for the future if any but a negligible scintilla of public opinion be represented by the letter on "Degrading Propaganda" in TIME, May 4. These people have no conception of the meaning of total war.

They still seem to "think" (God save the mark!) that it can be won with a popgun in one hand and an olive branch in the other. They do not realize that there is not and never has been such a thing as a humane war. If they weaken us into believing that there is or can be a humane war, we might as well give up and save the cost of fighting in the hope of buying off the victor. There is no such thing as a humane battle against a mad beast. We shall not only lose the war unless we hate the enemy and attack him with every weapon at our command and as ruthlessly and brutally as he has attacked us, but we shall also lose the peace unless we grind his head beneath our heel until he can never rise again. I refer to the enemy, to an ideology and to those who foster it--not to any race or nation. Benton's propaganda cartoons are horrible; that was his intention. And by all that is decent and worthwhile, they are a gorgeous exposition of what to expect and what we shall deserve if the "storm of protest" of your correspondent materializes as evidence of our willingness to be Nazified, Japanned and shellacked.

JOHN M. MAHON JR. Harrisburg, Pa.

No Swearing

Sirs; I had intended to ask you for an example of General Brereton's Malay swearing (TIME, May 4) but will spare you the effort. It can't be done. The worst thing you can call anyone is babi meaning "pig," which is considerably more of an insult to a Mohammedan than to anyone else, but still isn't swearing. There are a few expressions of incredulity sometimes conveying scorn such as apa macham and mana Boleh (which the tourists were wont to overwork to no effect in their attempts to get bargains in the shops), but that is about as far' as the mild-mannered Malay or Javanese would go. The language contains no genuine swearword.

P. DRUIDING Chicago, Ill.

Hero O'Hare

Sirs: I am disgusted by your article about Lieut.

Commander Edward H. O'Hare (TIME, May 4). He isn't responsible for what his father did years ago. He has become a national hero in spite of his father's bad record. . . .

In America, perhaps more than in any other country, a man is judged by what he himself does, by what he makes of himself, not by what his ancestors did or possessed. Surely this is one of our greatest traditions!

JOHN F. PERKINS JR. Tucson, Ariz.

Sirs: What possible excuse can TIME have for including, in its article . . . with reference to Edward O'Hare, its comments regarding his father ? It was nothing but muckraking of the lowest type and positively cruel to courageous young Mr. O'Hare. . . . I subscribed to TIME prior to the publication of its first issue, and have been a constant subscriber and reader since, but I cannot too severely condemn an item of this type.

FRANK P. TILTON Laconia, N.H.

TIME has as much admiration as Readers Perkins and Tilton for Lieut. Commander O'Hare's gallantry. Furthermore TIME believes that his father's career rather adds than detracts from his own merit. But, military secrets excepted, TIME has yet to reconcile its conscience to news suppression, a journalistic vice which, however justifiable in its beginning, is habit-forming. When Pilot O'Hare's exploit became known, TIME saw no reason to refer to his father. But when, in the same week that the young hero received the highest honors, a court decision was handed down assuring him of some $80,000 from his father's estate, the facts about the latter became pertinent.--ED.

Error

Sirs: Reference is made to the article appearing in TIME, May 11, captioned "E. Davis." It is not true that this department attempted to conceal the identity of Elmer Davis, author of The Road to Jericho, played by Tallulah Bankhead Tuesday evening, May 5. ... Elmer Davis, in our opinion, is a distinguished writer and commentator.

It is absurd to think NBC press department would withhold due credit to Mr. Davis because he is an employe of CBS. . . .

JOHN McKAY National Broadcasting Co., Inc. New York City

TIME erred, offers its apologies to NBC.--ED.

Patriots Overseas

Sirs: " Speaking for American citizens here in South America who speak practically no Spanish, we want to assure you how greatly we appreciate being able to receive your Airmail TIME magazine each week. Also knowing how much TIME is read by all, I hope you will publish this letter so that those back home will realize one great thing we Americans here in South America find very difficult to receive--the right to help our country. For a few months before income taxes were due we asked our American consuls in Colombia and Venezuela for the necessary papers to file our report, and to date still have not been able to procure any. Then, too, we continually read reports in TIME in regard to the necessity and advisability for citizens to buy Government bonds. We would very much like to contribute our small part by so doing, but there is no place that we know of where we can do this. . .

MR. & MRS. JEROME WILSON Caracas, Venezuela

The supply of income-tax blanks, which all U. S. consuls have, may have been exhausted due to shipping disruption, will certainly be replenished. Anyone in South America who can send money to the U.S. Treasury Department in Washington will receive bonds in exchange.--ED.

Civilian Pilots Sirs: The job on Civil Air Patrol [TIME, May 4] was splendid. We got the credit we deserved, without the romance and unnatural color which some other people had used about the same subject.

BECKWITH HAVENS Wing Commander, CAP Wing 21 Roosevelt Field Mineola, N.Y.

Legion for Dies

Sirs: . . . Your article of the May 11 issue, entitled "Statesmanship" refers to continuation of the Dies Committee. The article asserts: "Once a loud Dies committee booster, the American Legion now looked the other way." The American Legion emphatically urged continuance of the Dies committee, as evidenced by the enclosed letter sent to every Representative on Feb. 26, 1942. Representative Joe Starnes, vice chairman of that committee, addressed the National Executive Committee of the Legion at Indianapolis on April 30, at which meeting continued support of the work and purposes of the Dies committee was voted. . . .

FRANCIS M. SULLIVAN Acting Director National Legislative Committee The American Legion Washington, D.C.

Inspiration Sirs: I don't know TIME'S record for quick action, but I came across something yesterday that might be a record. I read in TIME, Jan. 5, a pretty interesting piece on detergents, which was accompanied by a striking (I might say unforgettable) photograph of two ducks--one floating in a tank of water, the other sinking (after the detergent had been added to the water). This week I received from book publishers William Morrow and Co. an advance copy of a mystery novel, The Case of the Drowning Duck. The jacket shows a duck expiring in a goldfish bowl and has a note from the publishers saying that Erie Stanley Gardner, the author, was inspired by TIME'S item. TIME Marched On, fast.

HARNETT T. KANE New Orleans Item New Orleans, La.

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