Sirs:

In TIME (March 27) you published a picture of the headstone at the grave of my friend, Bonnie A. Little. It occurs to me that the editors and readers of TIME will be interested in certain facts concerning this marine, since no mention of him is made in the Tarawa piece entitled "On to Westward."

Bonnie A. Little was a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps at the time of his death, although his new commission had not caught up with him. Eyewitness accounts relayed back to his home in Geneva tell how Captain Little led his platoon of amphibious tractors onto the beach in the first assault wave. All men in his tractor were killed except him before the landing was made. Singlehanded, Little pushed on to wipe out a Japanese machine-gun position before he was fatally wounded.

How well this man lived up to the highest traditions of the great Corps in which he served his country can be judged by the manner in which he gave his life, and also by his own words in the last letter he wrote to his wife. "The Marines," said Captain Little, "have a way of making you afraid--not of dying, but of not doing your job." It seems to me that this man said something that might well become a watchword for the Corps.

W. O. MAXWELL Geneva, Ill.

"Charge, My Eye!"

Sirs:

Re TIME (Feb. 28), FARMS. It is fascinating to know that we made a 65% profit ratio in 1943, especially when I have no figures to dispute you with. However, what really makes me sizzle is your typical urban viewpoint toward farmers, as revealed in the following: "For their produce farmers collected about 20% more than they charged in 1942." Since when did we start charging? I sell about three cases of eggs a week.

When the egg buyer drives in the yard and says "Eggs are down a cent today," do I rare back and say, "Oh, no, they're not, we're charging two cents more today." He drives off in a huff and I sit down on my case of eggs and charge and charge and charge, but nothing happens. The same system applies to livestock. We truck it to the city and are informed that the "market" is so much today. We can charge all we like but we get paid whatever the market happens to be. Charge, my eye!

You need a big hick on your editorial staff.

R. E. STEPHENSON Jasper, Mich.

P: TIME has hicks. But TIME, which also knows an embattled farmer when it sees one, abandons the entrenchments of overall U.S. Government statistics, yields this particular field to Reader Stephenson.--ED.

Sixteen with Mumps

Sirs:

I wish some of those bigoted persons who are the spokesmen for the unfortunate people of the Southern states would spend a week in this Army hospital. It would be a valuable lesson for them.

We are in a quarantine ward for mumps.

Four of the 16 patients are Negroes, and nine of the twelve white soldiers hail from the South. There has not been one instance of racial friction since I have been here. We play cards together, borrow each other's books and stationery, bum each other's cigarets. . . .

And finally, I have never heard the racial problem discussed with more judgment, discretion and frankness than in this ward. . . .

When called upon to share a common undertaking in a common background, the Southern soldier at once accepts the Negro soldier as another soldier and hence as an equal. Were it not for the numerous restrictions imposed upon the Southern Negro in civilian life, the same would unquestionably hold true in peacetime. . . .

(PFC.) MURRAY E. BOVARNICK c/o Postmaster New York City

Kelly's Grenades

Sirs:

I am somewhat puzzled about a statement you made in "Kelly Earns a Medal" (TIME, March 20). Either you are giving out the wrong dope or Kelly is. The 60-mm. mortar shell is so constructed that it is impossible to use as a grenade. Probably the only casual ties resulting from such procedure would be if the enemy were hit on the noodle. . . . On the level, what was he using? Grenades? (PFC.)

R. L. LUBY, U.S.M.C.R. Camp Elliott, San Diego

P: Said Kelly's citation: "At this critical point, Kelly picked up 60-mm. mortar shells, pulled the safety pins and, using the shells as grenades, killed at least five of the enemy."--ED.

Passage to Marseilles

Sirs:

We have just been exposed to Passage to Marseilles (TIME, Feb. 28) and were so aroused by one incident shown in the picture that there is an irresistible urge to protest to someone. We beg the use of TIME'S Letters column.

Humphrey Bogart is shown mercilessly killing the crew members of a German bomber.

These flyers, shot down on the Atlantic, had climbed upon the wing of their sinking plane. Bogart's French captain made a protest. Bogart pointed to the fatalities on his own wounded ship for justification. The captain seemed to be convinced. We weren't.

Certainly we would be outraged if a German were shown doing this to American flyers. There was no indication that Mr. Bogart's conduct was anything but noble. By any ethical standard it was cowardly and murderous. If the Nazis could get hold of this film (and it is at least doubtful whether it is within the bounds of legitimate warfare to subject the enemy to such tripe) it could be used to good advantage as anti-Allied propaganda.

This sort of thing is capable of great harm right here at home. When Bogart sneered at the captain's protest he was, in fact, sneering at what should be the ideal of all Allied fighting men. Showing a film like this may be particularly harmful to immature servicemen who are deeply influenced by the movies. Nazi education, even coming from Hollywood, does mold Nazis. . . .

(CORP.) JOHN COGLEY (PFC.) GEORGE GOODWIN Hammer Field, Calif.

First Test

Sirs:

TIME (Feb. 28) [Canadian edition] has just been brought to my attention. I notice . . . these few words: "In its first test the law had failed."

I understood you refer to the act creating a board of industrial relations. If so, I would like to point out to you the fact that in its first test, which in occurrence was the Montreal Tramways strike of Friday the 18th of February, the law had not failed. Would it not have been for this act, recently adopted by the Quebec Legislature, this strike would have lasted much longer than 30 hours. Furthermore, the seven persons already waiting for their trial would never have been arrested for intimidation without this existing law in our statutes. . . .

ADELARD GODBOUT

Prime Minister Quebec

P: The law forbade strikes in the public services. Premier Godbout must admit that the Montreal Tramways strike was a strike.--ED.

Tails

Sirs:

You made a promise, but, alas, failed to keep it. Under Letters (Feb. 28) you assured your readers that "pants will hereafter be taken off all ... pigeons" -- a phrase which I interpreted as an assurance that adjectives, etc. would henceforth be safely attached to their logical noun or pronoun. However, by March 6, this masterpiece had been passed into print: "Sitting stiffly, but beautiful in tails . . . were Dmitri Shostakovich and his wife." . . .

MRS. E. W. GUPTILL

Montreal, Que.

P: Reader Guptill may imagine where TIME'S tail is.--ED.

Alsop's Career

Sirs: In your account of my checkered career in TIME (March 13), you omitted the one episode which gives coherence to the whole.

Since the omission leaves the implication that I left uniformed service on the eve of the war, I think the error requires correction.

I resigned a do-nothing job in the Navy in August 1941, but I did so to join the staff of the American Volunteer Group. . . . My service in the A.V.G. under General Chennault was the hardest and the most interesting work I have ever done. In late November 1941, General Chennault sent me to Manila to negotiate with General MacArthur. ... On my way back to Burma, I was caught in Hong Kong by the outbreak of war. During the fighting there, I placed myself under the command of our military observer, Colonel Reynolds Condon. When the surrender came, Colonel Condon instructed me to burn my A.V.G. papers and enter civilian internment with false papers as a newspaperman. I was thus very fortunately repatriated.

When repatriated, I attempted to rejoin General Chennault from Lourenco Marques, but was forbidden to leave the exchange ship by Secretary Hull. I have been trying to rejoin him ever since, and when my application for a commission was at first rejected by the Army, I accepted service in China as a civilian official only to make myself useful to him in the best way I could. You will understand, therefore, that a certain thread of consistency connects the various phases through which I have passed.

JOSEPH W. ALSOP JR. 1st Lieutenant, A.C. c/o Postmaster New York City

Unsyndicated Figures

Sirs: Why has Paul Mallon been singled out as the only columnist whose total number of papers and circulation you don't print (TIME, March 27) ? . . . Surely, the statistics were as readily available from his syndicate as from those of the other columnists. Could this be a typical bit of "Time-ery" injected into the "news" columns of TIME? . .

FRANK T. NYE Cedar Rapids, Iowa

P: Hardly. It was injected by Mallon's Hearst bosses, who withheld the figures.--ED.

Ambassador Bowers

Sirs: The undersigned American businessmen in Chile deeply resent the uncalled-for and completely unfounded article in TIME (March 20) attacking the Ambassador of the U.S., the Honorable Claude G. Bowers. The Ambassador was taking a well-earned and long-postponed vacation of short duration within two and a half hours' automobile ride of Santiago and at all times was in telephonic communication with the Embassy. Scurrilous attacks of this nature are particularly unjust in the case of the person representing the U.S. in Chile during these difficult times when the fact is that his able representation has secured the complete confidence of the American colony, as well as that of the Government to which he is accredited.

H. R. GRAHAM P. A. SEIBERT

R. P. MILLER JAMES CARR

ROY COHN HUGH MCFADDEN

J. J. CUSSEN J. R. COTTER

J. L. WILLET RICHARD REINOEHL

FRED MOORE Santiago, Chile

P: TIME is glad to know that Ambassador Bowers has "secured the complete confidence of the American colony as well as that of the Government [of Chile]." It is also relieved to learn that he was in "telephonic communication" with his Embassy.--ED.

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