German Opportunity

Sirs:

That Ludendorff bridge thing (TIME, March 19): what a solid gold 23-jewel opportunity for future German schoolbook historians!

Scene: Any 6th-grade history class in Germany, 1965.

Teacher: Emil Holzkopf, who won the last war?

Emil: Germany won it, through her mighty and invincible army.

Teacher: Why was our dear Fatherland so magnanimous in granting peace terms? . . .

Emil: A foul traitor purposely failed to destroy one bridge, as he had been ordered. The half-witted and stupid Americans came across that bridge, and in cowardly manner marched around and past our brave armies. ... In order to rid our holy soil of this vermin, we made a softer peace than our heroic victories warranted. . . .

H. U. RHODITJS

San Antonio

P: TIME trusts that Emil Holzkopf will have saner teachers.--ED.

Premature Announcement

Sirs:

. . . TIME (Dec. 30, 1940) devoted considerable space to the approaching marriage of Gargantua, the gorilla, and the popular pet, M'Toto. Perhaps due to my own negligence, I have never heard anything more about the proposed match. Can you bring me up to date on this?

ANTOINETTE G. TORREY

Chadds Ford, Pa.

P: M'Toto, now 13, is still not nubile.--ED.

"If Gripers Could See"

Sirs:

I am very much disgusted with the letter "Coddled Killers," signed by six disgusted Combat Officers (TIME, Jan. 22). . . .

Those who gripe about how well prisoners of war are treated must realize that the U.S. is one of the signatories of the Geneva Convention and adheres to it. . . . To do otherwise would cause repercussions on our own comrades who are so unfortunate as to be captured by the Germans. . . .

We are waging total war, but, once [the Germans] surrender and are in our custody, they are prisoners of war and must be treated in accordance with the terms of the Geneva Convention.

Perhaps if gripers could see a prisoner-of-war enclosure on the Continent, where Americans are guarding prisoners they themselves have captured, they would realize that prisoners are not "coddled."

OFFICER'S NAME WITHHELD

Office of the Commanding Officer

c/o Postmaster

New York City

Elusive Denominator

Sirs:

You quote Archbishop John Timothy McNicholas (TIME, March 5): "We wholeheartedly condemn bigotry in every form. . . . [But] the Catholic Church cannot give the impression that one religion is as good as another or that she must strive with those of other faiths for a common denominator in religion."

If the Catholic Church is to pull its weight in bringing about the peace for which all civilized mankind is praying she must learn to do what the Archbishop says she cannot do. . . . The good Archbishop's disavowal of bigotry does not ring quite true.

CHARLES LANE

Van Nuys, Calif.

Sirs:

Is it possible that the four chaplains of diverse faiths, who died recently on a sinking ship that other men of many faiths might live, found the "common denominator" which eludes Archbishop McNicholas?

(CY) J. P. RYAN

Great Lakes, Ill.

Cologne's Heritage

Sirs:

Your correspondent in Germany joins the exultant chorus of many an American newspaperman, taking pride, as it were, in the dexterity with which Allied bombers . . . spared the supposedly antique towers on Cologne's Cathedral (TIME, March 19). . . . The much advertised belfries and spires of the Koelner Dom were built under Kaiser Wilhelm I, as late as 1880! There is not an ounce of Middle Ages in those fake campaniles. . . . They represent no "sacred heritage" whatever. . . .

MARCEL I. WEINREICH

Professor of Comparative Linguistics

Department of Modern Languages

McPherson College, Kans.

P: Begun in 1248, Cologne Cathedral is Germany's most famous Gothic structure. No more "fake" than Manhattan's St. Patrick's Cathedral, its soaring towers are medieval in design, though not in execution. They were built in 1842-80, according to the original 14th-Century design.--ED.

Test for Lewdness

Sirs:

While in New York I saw the play Trio which was banned by Commissioner Moss for being "lewd, lascivious and immoral" (TIME, March 12). The only possible objection was its subject matter: a female French professor enamored of a young girl. The treatment was anything but lewd. It was handled as a problem and . . . anyone who went to see it to get a vicarious thrill was doomed to disappointment.

The test should not be the subject matter, but the way in which that matter is handled. Thus Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession, even though it deals with the economic basis of prostitution, is a highly moral play because Shaw handles the subject morally. By the same token Mae West reading the Ruth and Naomi dialogue from the Bible would probably be anything but. Commissioner Moss could discover far more immorality in any nightclub floor show where similar subjects prevail but where the emphasis in interpretation is on the other side of the road, than he will ever find in the production of Trio I saw at the Belasco.

ALLAN J. ROSENTHAL

Lieutenant, U.S.N.R.

Seattle

Captain Mac

Sirs:

. . . Thank you for presenting the Women's Reserve of the Navy as meriting a "Well done." You have overemphasized my personal part in the accomplishment, but you could not overemphasize my pride in the reputation which the WAVES have established.

MILDRED H. MCAFEE

Captain, U.S.N.R.

Director of Women's Reserve

Washington

For the Willkie Memorial

Sirs:

We received the following letter from Colonel M. O. Bousfield, sent on behalf of officers, all of them colored, at Station Hospital No. 1 at Fort Huachuca, Ariz.:

"Please find enclosed draft on Chase National Bank for one hundred fifty-eight ($158.00) dollars as a contribution to Freedom House made by officers of the Medical Corps, medical administrative officers, Army Nursing Corps and one enlisted man who thus responded to the letter published in TIME (Feb. 12) concerning contributions [to the Willkie Memorial Fund]." . . .

GEORGE FIELD

Executive Director

Freedom House

New York City

Helpful Suggestion

Sirs:

. . . When flags were waving and the youth of the nation was marching off to keep aggressors away, none of those left behind were worried about our emotional reaction to the sudden change. But now everyone is writing a book or jumping on the bandwagon with helpful suggestions on how to train the returning animal to live in his own home. . . .

Why shouldn't the servicemen organize and publish books and hand out free information for civilians? Teach them to live the way we have been fighting for, to make them conform to the ideas and ideals we have supposedly been protecting. . . .

WILLIAM C. ARBUCKLE JR.

Lieutenant, CMP

(S/SGT.) FLOYD SMITH, AC

c/o Postmaster

New York City

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