"Masterpiece of Ambiguity"
Sirs:
Your fulsome praise of Winston Churchill's radio speech (TIME, March 29) shows what a masterpiece of ambiguity the Prime Minister achieved. . . .
RICHARD GREENLEAF
Jacksonville
Sirs:
Mr. Churchill's enlightening speech contributed much to our understanding of his views. . . . He assumes that the war with Japan can mark time for a year or two, and that it can then be disposed of by the immediate transportation of the forces--the relatively few additional forces--needed to "punish the greedy, cruel empire of Japan." He has carefully prepared the mind of the British public for a partial demobilization at the prior point of Hitler's defeat; and the manner in which he has dwelt on this prospect suggests that in his mind the rest will be comparatively easy. . . .
China, it appears, will be rescued "from her long torment" not by her own will and heroism aided by our equipment, but by a rescue-squad from outside. . . . Does the Churchill Government fear that China may emerge too strong if she wins substantially by her own manpower? ...
The spirit of all this is not lost upon the keen understanding of awakened China. Is it lost upon us? Shall we allow ourselves to become party to such a program? . . .
The work in Asia is not one of salvage for an old status. It is one of giving scope and shape to a new life already born. That new life will not be abolished if the West ignores it; it will be for us or against us. It can be for us if we act now in its behalf. If it is against us, it will be long before America can enjoy the luxury of demobilization.
WILLIAM ERNEST HOCKING
Cambridge, Mass.
Sirs:
Churchill's terms may have been noble, but not noble enough. They certainly lacked much in foresight. . . .
What more logical grounds could our isolationists have than a council of Europe and a council of Asia for retiring, if not into nationalism, at least into a mere council of the Americans? We are not European any more than we are Asiatic. For a European like Churchill to consider Europe the main show is understandable, if myopic. For an American to think so would be strange indeed.
Anything short of a world council is no answer at all. . . .
In a world council we would rightly have a place as a principal shareholder. On second thought, maybe Churchill isn't short sighted. Maybe that is what he wants to avoid.
HELEN BUGBEE Chicago
Cover Oasis
Sirs:
Like an oasis in the desert came the April 5 cover of TIME. After a great procession of military men and political leaders, it was a tremendous relief to see the Mephistophelean face of Orchestra Leader Beecham on that issue. Let's have more like it. The artists have been too neglected in this war time. . . . Let the poet, the dramatist, the composer and the painter join the parade across the front of TIME again. . . .
FREDERICK ALLEN Lexington, Va.
Boyhood Chum
Sirs:
. . . Reading about Polish-Russian relations in the March 15 issue of TIME, I came across the name of Tadeusz Romer, the present Ambassador of the Exiled Polish Government to the U.S.S.R. in Moscow.
Believe me it was the thrill of my life when I recognized that this Tadeusz Romer was none other than my former boyhood chum, "Tadzio," who is pictured (right) on attached photograph, together with his sister and myself, in happier days some 30-odd years ago. . . . This picture was taken around 1908 in Vienna . . . where we spent our early childhood. . . .
A. K. HARTMAN
Los Angeles
TIME'S Lure
Sirs:
. . . Over these years I have read TIME carefully and with interest. No fair man would admit that it lacks a lure and the quality of demanding a reading. The reason for this is, in my opinion, that it covers the news, it is written excitingly, and never fails to have an undertone of venom. I am sure this last characteristic is the major reason for its success. ...
One of the universal attributes of any aggregation of readers is the sadistic desire to read of attacks on the other fellow, provided they do not hit him or his associates. On the other hand, objectively, I cannot fail to wonder what has happened to many individuals who have received irreparable injury from one sarcastic line in TIME.
I realize that if you wrote the same news in placid and harmless terms your circulation would fall off ... and we would be robbed of the opportunity to witness each week the flagellation of many individuals. We would miss that. . . .
GERARD B. LAMBERT Washington, D.C.
> Do other readers agree that an undertone of venom is TIME'S chief lure, that sadism governs their reading habits?--ED.
Horrible Holocausts (Cont'd)
Sirs:
May I be permitted a word in defense of the pilots who unmercifully strafed the life rafts of the Jap survivors of the battle of the Bismarck Sea, and brought forth the horrified protests of J. Howard Cliffe (TIME, March 29) ?
Coinciding exactly with the Jap ideas of the rules of war, as demonstrated in such incidents as the rape of Nanking, the strafing of Hickam, Wheeler, Iba and Clark fields, the machine-gunning of American pilots who hit the silk too soon after bailing out and the "flag of truce" incident reported from Guadalcanal, such action on our part raises our stock immeasurably in the eyes of the Japs. Had we acted otherwise, we would have lost "face." . . .
Kindness and tolerance will only lead to bigger and more horrible holocausts. . . .
T. S. DUFF El Paso, Tex.
Sirs:
... Of course it is regrettable that we have to kill anyone anywhere, but since we have to protect people like J. Howard Cliffe in his ivyclad retreat in Pennsylvania, let us thank God that we have strong men who will kill our enemies anywhere they can find them. . . .
ELIZABETH W. HAINLER
Buffalo
Sirs :
. . . Were the Japs remorseful when my brother and nine passengers were strafed to death in a helpless C.N.A.C. transport plane on the ground in China in 1940? Were the Jap pilots so filled with human feelings, that they returned and strafed the little Chinese stewardess of this plane and two helpless women passengers to death, after they got out of the plane and were hiding in the brush?
Would Writer Cliffe be remorseful about killing a helpless rattlesnake after he had spent his "strike?"
AMOS KENT Junction City, Ore.
Sirs:
. . . Thoroughly enjoyed reading of the "coldblooded slaughter." I am also in favor of burning "the paper cities of Japan."
Another good old American custom I would like to see is nailing a Jap hide on every "backhouse" door in America. . . .
A. H. AUSTIN
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Sirs:
. . . Mr. Cliffe, Dr. Eckstein (TIME, March 29) and all the other advocates of peace through brotherly love must face this fact: defeating the Japanese will "endlessly poison the relationships between our countries." . . .
RALPH D. WHITMORE
Cambridge, Mass.
A Pukka Gen Wallah Reports
Sirs:
Your comments regarding Royal Air Force lingo (TIME, March 22) were interesting, but could have been much more so. . . . Some of our idioms and phrasings . . . that you have chosen are not as universally used as your article would indicate. For instance, whilst "on a rhubarb" is used somewhat, the more universal expression is "on a piece of cake" or "on a piece of duff." Then again, you attempt to give the degrees of fedupness in terms of "browned off," "cheesed off" and "brassed off," but actually there are no degrees of fedupness, for when you are fed up you are fed up, and that's all there is to it. ...
Now as to "gen" . . . the nearest to an origin is that it was originally short for genuine. Always in any service there are lots of rumors flying around, so someone comes in and says "I have some 'gen,' " meaning I have something that is genuine. But it has been messed around quite a bit, with the result that today it has many meanings and many applications. To "gen up" means to study. A fellow who purveys "gen" is known as a "gen wallah." If he dishes out good "gen," he is a "pukka gen wallah." If he dishes out bad "gen," then he is a "duff gen wallah." . . .
The use of the word "prang," as applied to crashing, is strictly limited. I haven't heard it used for two or three years, but mention of crashes and crashing leads me to a mild rebuke. No mention of our slanguage is complete without mention of our most famous phrasing, and that is the expression "gone for a Burton." When anything or anybody is through for good, it or he is said to have "gone for a Burton." ... If one of your "oppos" (universal term for buddies) is killed, you don't say he was killed, you just say, "Poor old Joe has gone for a Burton." . . . There is an origin to this expression. One of the most popular beers in prewar England was Burton beer. If anyone was wanted and he wasn't around, it was said that he had "gone for a Burton," for more often than not, he was to be found in the nearest pub. .. .
Just in conclusion, you might be interested to know that the R.A.F. over here affectionately refer to their Canadian compatriots as Pepsi Colas. . . .
LEADING AIRCRAFTMAN WM. J. L. GIBBONS Calgary, Alberta
Meet the Army, Mr. Smathers
Sirs:
May a soldier comment upon the views presented by a "lawyer turned shipyard worker" (TIME, March 29)?
Mr. Smathers . . . complains of his early rising . . . the long hours and the uncertainty of his position. He emphasizes the dangers of his job and his lack of security, and then attempts to draw a comparison between his lot and that of the men in the armed services. However, there are a few things our misguided hero on the home front has overlooked.
The boys on the battlefront don't keep union hours, nor do they get extra pay for overtime. ... I might remind Mr. Smathers that servicemen also pay taxes--out of the salaries the gentleman insists come from taxes paid by him and the rest of the oppressed. His tone implies that the services are akin to charitable organizations, which he as a taxpayer is forced to support. Shall we forgo our salaries so that he does not have to pay the taxes from which such salaries are derived ? . . .
When Mr. Smathers says, and I quote: "If those guys want anything to come back to 'they'd better damn well' stop cussing and try to see our side of the picture more clearly, and hold up their end of the bargain as well as we are trying to hold ours up," does he realize how many won't be coming back? . . .
MAJOR F. E. LEEK, U.S.M.C.
Pensacola, Fla.
Sirs:
... If all I had to do was walk two miles to get back home from work I'd keep my damned mouth shut.
CORPORAL M. KRIEGER, U.S.A.A.F.
Army Air Base Sioux City, Iowa
Sirs:
We assume that Lawyer Smathers is either 1) classified 4-F, or 2) is over 38 years old. Otherwise we know that he couldn't be kept out of this soft setup we have in the Army. . . .
We humbly nominate Lawyer Smathers as the guy we least want to have meet us at the pier when we return. . . .
FIRST SERGEANT WILBERT H. CLARK & COMPANY
Camp Crowder, Mo.
Sirs:
. . . Join the Army, if you are one of the misused civilians, and get all these good things that we soldiers deprive you of.
SERGEANT J. ADLER
SERGEANT W. R. CURTIS
SERGEANT J. C. GARSTECK
CORPORAL S. L. BROWNELL
FIRST SERGEANT W. B. HENDERSON
CORPORAL HARRY O'DAY
PRIVATE C. A. HAMILTON JR.
PRIVATE HAROLD M. TENNYSON
PRIVATE C. F. VENTURA
SERGEANT HARRY A. RINTO
PRIVATE VERNOLD VIRNIG
CORPORAL HAROLD C. KLEIN
PRIVATE JOHN R. THOMPSON
SERGEANT CLYDE WILSON
PRIVATE GLENN L. BRYANT
CORPORAL RICHARD C. RAUSCH
PRIVATE J. A. BATTAGLIA
PRIVATE M. ITSKOVITZ
SERGEANT CARL D. ADLON
Camp Claiborne
Alexandria, La.
Galsworthy's America
Sirs:
On reading Stanley M. Cleveland's letter (TIME, March 29) I was struck by his description of "people who . . . look upon America with the same . . . sentiment with which a college sophomore looks on his alma mater." I recalled a statement made by the late John Galsworthy over 20 years ago when he said that Americans' attitude toward their country "seems to be that of a lover to his lady or a child to its mother." . .
Lois A. ROBSON
North Cove, Wash.
WIVES to Win the War
Sirs:
Already we have the WAACs, WAVES, SPARS. Marines, A.W.V.S. et al. We now propose an organization of WIVES. . . .
The inspiration for this idea was suggested by newspaper reports about a Mrs. Georgia Hines, who operates a crude-oil still for Standard Oil of California. Said she, when pledging 100% of her earnings to the company's payroll-deduction plan for bond buying: "My hubby is earning enough for both of us to get by on. I took this job to help win the war--and I want every cent I earn to be used against our enemies." . .
A. F. MIRANDA
Oakland, Cal.
Background for Discussion
Sirs:
Your Background for Peace [TIME, March 22] proved so interesting that several friends have arranged for a small discussion group.
We plan to meet after each article is published. . . .
WILLIAM G. HASELTINE Belmont, Mass.
> Another meeting is in order (see p. 104).--ED.
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.