Inkwell Sirs:

"Chatting with Molotov . . . President Roosevelt picked up the inkwell on his desk, turned it over in his hand . . . Molotov . . . laughed" (TIME, Dec. 27).

I tried it, but no one laughed at the handful of ink I had as a result. No doubt our intrepid Commander in Chief knows a trick or two but can he make ink flow uphill? . . .

A. M. LILLY

Wynnewood, Pa.

P:Has Reader Lilly reflected that even I an inkwell stamped "Made in Germany" might have been empty?--ED.

More on Endymion

Sirs:

Schooner or cutter (TiME, Dec. 13), no ship in the world has appeared more beautiful to anyone than did Donald Douglas' Endymion to my family and me one Sunday afternoon in the Catalina channel. . . .

A fire on our gasoline-powered cruiser had become uncontrollable when, by gunfire, we finally attracted the attention of the crew of the Endymion. . . . The master seamanship displayed in coming about, dropping sail, getting under power and coming alongside for the rescue, all in an amazingly short time, would have been a marvelous sight to anyone, but to us--you can imagine!

When questioned as to why the smoke of our gasoline fire had not been noticed earlier, Mr. Douglas replied with the typical contempt in which a sailing enthusiast holds "powderpuff" sailing: "We didn't think it unusual--power boats always smoke like that."

TAYLOR HANCOCK

Ensign, U.S.C.G. New London, Conn.

After Two Years

Sirs:

Let me thank you for the article "After Two Years" (TIME, Dec. 27). I have been trying to figure out, for two years, why things have been going as they have. Two lines make this clear: "The press has fallen down so very badly," and "We in the U.S. have done such an abominable job in educating a generation , . . [that our men] don't know what to believe in." . . .

The reflection that Americans could not know what they were fighting for is no surprise. We have lost the sense of values, and take our liberties and dignities for granted as our right. We are going to learn that they must be paid for, every so often.

The marine gunner's remark to your Mr. Sherrod was just simple truth. In these days you can't pick a better way. The quicker we all realize it the better for our country.

(Rev.) H. W. VANCOUENHOVEN

New York City

Sirs:

... I acquired a splendid marine for a brother-in-law last fall. I am fond and proud TIME, JANUARY 17, 1944

Volume XLIII Number 3 of him. He is about to go into action. He is the first marine I have ever known well.

With this in mind, I cannot defend nor justify Robert Sherrod's report ["After Two Years"] on the battle of Tarawa. ... In this particular report, whom did TIME think they were benefiting?

KATHRYNE ROHRS Peru, Neb.

-- Its readers.--ED.

The Lawyers

Sirs:

Oh! Oh! "Enter the Lawyers" (TIME, Dec. 20). . . .

So the legal laddies with their constipated mentalities, asinine subtleties and refinements are baffling themselves with "What about Himmler, who may never have shot or beaten to death a Jew, personally?" What happens to a mug participating in a conspiracy which results in an innocent death?

"How can the U.S. and Britain punish any war criminals for crimes committed on foreign soil?" They needn't. Just turn war criminals over to the tender ministrations of erstwhile undergrounds of Poland, France, Greece, etc., and let nature take its course. Elementary, my dear Watson. . . .

OWEN O'CLONTARF Moncton, N.B.

Double Feature

Sirs:

Thanking you for a little unbiased light on the Japanese-American situation (TIME, Dec. 20), I present the latest in California double feature:

The Hearst press promoted and encouraged unconstitutional and un-American treatment of American citizens of Japanese descent, and at the same time vigorously promoted the "Bill of Rights Week" throughout the state.

HANSEL HARTER San Francisco

Sirs:

Pfc. Borchers' letter reflected absolutely the nitwit complacent attitude of the Midwest toward the Jap. The general opinion in this part of the country is that the Jap is a harmless little fellow. . . .

California and the West Coast is well-justified in its attitude toward the Jap, and it would do no harm for the rest of the country to realize too that there are too many Japs around and know too, like the Coast, that a war is on and who it is against.

Someday I would like to get back to California and I don't . . . want to run into any of the yellow-bellies any place.

JAMES CALDWELL St. Louis

Sirs:

. . . You do not seem to know much about the California Jap situation. . . . Your Private Borchers can have the Japs in Chicago and keep them, being used to the stock yards anyway. . . .

The men & women whose grandfathers won the West have a new lease on life again. . . .

God help them and their West Coast fighting brothers that the Japs be beaten in their own land and never return to our land.

NORMAN W. HICKS

Sacramento

Horns & Wings

Sirs:

Was surprised that TIME would print such a smart aleck letter as that one from one Richard M. Weiss of St. Louis (Dec. 27).

Would like to tell Mr. Weiss that there are plenty of people in Germany with horns and tails--judging by their fiendish acts--although they were not born with them. . . . (I never saw even a bull calf born with horns.) . . .

As to anyone born in England or the U.S. with wings: the wings--like the German horns--are acquired later.

I only hope that we won't forget this time that those German horns are malignant growths with deep roots in the German Kultur. I have met second and third generation Americans (and some haven't deserved the name) who have been contaminated by that same Kultur.

H. E. ANDERSEN Fragaria, Wash.

Sirs:

. . . Weiss is one war behind. . . .

(Serviceman's Name Withheld) Quantico, Va.

The Legion Again

Sirs:

A 21-gun salute to you for two letters published in your Dec. 27 issue: the one from a Guadalcanal veteran pleading for life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for loyal Japanese-Americans, and the one from Sergeant Schifter panning the National Commander of the American Legion, Warren Atherton, for his threat against Washington statesmen who may be guilty of thinking twice before giving what Atherton calls "just deserts" to servicemen.

As a veteran of the first World War (U.S. Marines) and a veteran of cruiser action in the Guadalcanal campaign, I celebrate these symptoms of vision and realistic idealism among veterans of World War II. This time we may rise above nationalistic and racialistic hysteria and above the familiar and disgraceful Legion lobbyism. We may demand, by virtue of our veteran power, instead, the kind of statesmanship that will indefinitely postpone World War No. III. It is high time.

CARL KNUDSEN

Chaplain, U.S.N.R. Cambridge, Mass.

Sirs:

. . . Sergeant Melvin Schifter takes time out to give the American Legion a kick in the pants we don't appreciate.

Warren Atherton, our American Legion National Commander, was speaking for honest-to-God fighting men . . . when he made his recent statement. . . . The men returning from this war are going to be American Legion members, pulling as one, to rebuild homes, obtain jobs and be fairly represented in official offices. Your "just deserts" of dead Japs and Nazis is just so much hooey, and won't get you nor any other man anything after the flag-waving is over. . . .

Brother, the American Legion doesn't want you. For the mere sake of returning men due a fair deal, the Legion right or wrong, please secure that noise. . . .

(M.M.i/c) WILLIAM D. WARD, U.S.C.G.

(A Legion Member) New York City

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