McGuffin v. Wenie

DIRECTOR ALFRED HITCHCOCK IS A BRITISH UPSTART WITH NO KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLLYWOOD LANGUAGE [TIME, DEC. 18]. THE THING THE HERO CHASES IS NOT A MCGUFFIN, BUT A WENIE AND HAS BEEN EVER SINCE THE DAYS OF MACK SENNETT. THE STOLEN PEARLS WERE PLACED IN A WENIE. THE WENIE WAS STOLEN BY A DOG. AND THE DOG WAS CHASED BY EVERYONE INCLUDING THE KEYSTONE COPS. THEY ARE STILL CHASING HIM. . . .

JACK MOFFITT

Warner Bros. Studios

Hollywood

For Happier Mice

Sirs:

. . . An isolated experiment of giving supplemental vitamins to 200 people over a one-month period is not news that is clear, candid or concise [TIME, Dec. 4]. When scientists speak of vitamins having "demonstrable effects" they speak in terms of years, lifetimes and even generations.

Let's have no more smugness concerning the average American diet. Nutritionists say it is awful. If so many more of us are going to live longer, the least we can do is enjoy it. High nutrition standards do make happier, more effective mice. We could do with a worldful of happier, more effective men.

MARGARET LEE WALGREN

Pittsburgh

P:TIME hopes it is not smug about the U.S. diet, views with alarm the prospect of more effective mice, wonders how Reader Walgren knows they are happier.--ED.

"With Best Wishes . . ."

Sirs:

On behalf of the many officers and enlisted personnel of the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, who have read and enjoyed the thousands of copies of TIME contributed by your Honolulu representative and distributed in the Pacific Ocean Areas by the Fleet Recreation and Morale Officer, I extend my sincere appreciation and gratitude.

The many reports received telling how these magazines are enjoyed from the vessels of the Pacific Fleet, and the Navy and Marine Corps units stationed on the lonesome little islands in the Pacific prove their popularity, and I feel that in donating these magazines, TIME Inc. has contributed in no small way to the war effort here in the Pacific Ocean Areas.

C. W. NIMITZ

Admiral, U.S.N.

Headquarters of the Commander in Chief,

U.S. Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas

Count Restored

Sirs:

I am sure I shall be one of several to call to your attention your error in TIME (Dec. 11) in the picture of the Italian notables. In your asterisked explanation you say: "On his [Crown Prince Umberto's] left is Count Sforza." Sorry, but Count Sforza, whom I have the pleasure of knowing very well, is at the extreme left of the picture, beyond Bonomi.

RUDOLPH ALTROCCHI

University of California Berkeley

P:TIME admits that in this case it was not far enough to the left, herewith prints an unmistakable likeness of Count Sforza.--ED.

"I Can't Be Home . . ."

Sirs:

Here's a letter from Ella Logan [Sons O' Fun, Show Time, et al.] to her husband, Writer-Producer Fred Finklehoffe. She's singing to the soldiers in Italy and has been entertaining the soldiers abroad--a total of nine months in the war. I think Ella is the Elsie Janis of this war.

". . . Dearest, I know now I can't be home for Xmas. You'll never understand just how it is over here and how little entertainment our boys have. . . . It's not a very easy job over here. It's God awful.

"The trouble back home, I think, is that too many people take things for granted.

Some of them, the ones I really can't take, tell you they are antiFascist. They stand up in a drawing room with a drink in their mitts in front of a nice big fireplace and scream out their speeches against what is wrong. Or after a big buffet supper they are upset because our fellows didn't have such a good day at the front. But these same speechmakers can't find time to come over, or they never find the time to drop a line each week or send a food box to cheer up some G.I. . . .

"Please God, by Christmas our lads will have taken another town and I will sit down with them and eat chow. They won't have a tree but while they're eating they'll be thinking of the tree in the living room back home. Some kid will make a joke and all the guys will laugh but it's not the kind of laugh they used to have when they were with their folks. And after chow they won't ask me to sing Jingle Bells or Ball Game. They'll ask for I'll Be Seeing You or Goodbye Sue. Most of the fellows won't even have the pleasure of eating with a girl from back home or hearing a song because they'll be lying up there smacking away at the Krauts. It's snowing up there but it's not the white Christmas they are dreaming of. That kind, please God, will be next year. . . ."

STEVE LAIRD

Beverly Hills, Calif.

Welles's Oblivion

Sirs:

In the recent reconstruction of the State Department, the name of Sumner Welles was not mentioned. In fighting for truth and honesty in international relations he seems to have brought upon himself oblivion. Is this to be the fate of all such men?

ED MACLEAN

Canon City, Colo.

P:No forgotten man, ex-Under Secretary of State Welles writes a weekly syndicated column for the New York Herald Tribune, wrote a best-seller (The Time for Decision; TIME, July 24), edited the forthcoming An Intelligent American's Guide to the Peace, broadcasts over the Mutual network (Wed., 10-10:15 p.m.).--ED.

Junior Miss

Sirs:

In the Nov. 13 issue, you said that Budapest is decadent and worldly. This is very untrue. Budapest is a city of beauty and splendor. Of course it couldn't be expected that war correspondents would appreciate such art and historical beauty. Hungary's stormy and dramatic history means nothing to you. . . .

Please leave Hungary out of your unflattering statements. I am only 15 years old, but I know more about the history and. culture of Budapest than any war correspondent could ever hope to.

BETTY ANNE ROUTLEY

Seattle

Who Knows?

Sirs:

You have placed me in a ticklish position and I call upon you to extricate this bewildered G.I. In reading your article (TIME, Aug. 21 ) relating to the New Guinea campaign, I was very impressed by the figures given of losses for combined Australian and U.S. forces. The amounts stated are 662 dead, 63 missing. Later, in a bull session with the boys, I trot out these said totals expecting complete surprise and amazement. The surprise was effected all right, to the extent that they doubted the figures enough to wager $25 that you are wrong. I took the bet.

Alas. With the money in the hands of a neutral party, they refer me to Yank magazine's figures on the casualties.*

As you can see, the figures on Biak and Wakde dead alone are almost triple your complete figures, and that is excluding the other five places of action your article mentioned.

My "colleagues" want their money now, but I am holding on until I hear from you, verifying and substantiating your assertions.

(Pvx.) F. W. NEAL

c/o Postmaster

San Francisco

P:TIME relied on official War Department figures for its total of "Allied" casualties. It is now informed that these casualties were not Allied, as listed, but U.S. Army only.--ED.

Vansittarrism

Sirs:

"Lord Vansittart, Britain's No. 1 advocate of Schrecklichkeit . . ." (TIME, Nov. 27).

Nonsense. If TIME's writer had taken the trouble to read anything Vansittart has written, he would not have used so silly a word. Such misrepresentations of "Vansittartism" date from the embarrassed retorts of English appeasers of a few years ago to "Van's" vigorous realism about Germany. One would think that his recent book--which has a very clear chapter about what "Vansittartism" is and is not--was enough to dispose of the myth that there is anything schrecklich about his proposals.

ALBERT LYND

Boston

P:Whose nonsense? Let Reader Lynd reread Vansittart's larruping Lessons of My Life. That sizzling tract advocates for Germany the kind of Schrecklichkeit the FBI advocated for Capone.--ED.

Brothers

Sirs:

In your Dec. 4 issue, you refer to the appointment of a Mathew W. Bullock to the Chairmanship of the Massachusetts Parole Board.

Everything you write about him reads as if you were describing "Henny" Bullock who was at Andover in 1904.

Bullock was such an outstanding member of the track team that in his senior year he was elected Captain. He refused to accept because, much as he appreciated the honor, he did not think it would be to Andover's advantage to have a colored boy as Captain.

RAYMOND S. ANDERSON

Newark

P:"Henny" (William Henry) Bullock, who refused the track-team captaincy, is a younger brother of Massachusetts Parole Board's Chairman Mathew Bullock. Both were great footballers. Henny now works in a war plant.--ED.

*2,227 Allied died at Biak, Wakde, Aitape, Arawe, Gloucester, the Admiralties.--ED.

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