V-E Issue

Sirs:

Permit me to express the profound appreciation which I am sure is entertained by thousands of other TIME readers and subscribers for the lucid and concise report of the victory in Europe [TIME, May 14]. It is so utterly articulate that it ought to be made required reading for every school boy and girl studying the present period of world history now and in future years.

FRED WILLIAMSON

Baton Rouge, La.

Sirs:

. . . It is an all-around, thrilling coverage of the Day, unsurpassed, as far as I have seen, in any other publication.

MRS. FREDERICK FOSDICK

Fitchburg, Mass.

Thanks to the Men

Sirs:

It seems to me that in these days following victory in Europe it would be appropriate for us to thank the men who made it possible. Let us say to them, personally, that we are grateful. Letters from families and friends would tell them that we at home understand and appreciate what they have accomplished. They deserve it, all of them. . . . I am sure it will do a great deal to raise their spirits, and it is so little for us to do after what they have done for us.

DOROTHY M. SANDOE

Pelham Manor, N.Y.

Advance, Britannia

Sirs:

Don't any of you newspapermen ever listen to the radio, instead of taking transcripts off the tape? Churchill's conclusion on May 8th was "Advance, Britannia! Long live the cause of freedom! God save the King." To print "Advance, Britain!" [TIME, May 14] is an insult to a great orator and an affront to every canon of rhythm.

J. WAYNFLETE CARTER

New York City

P: Too much static, too busy, very sorry, apologies to Orator Churchill and Canoneer Carter, a frown at the Associated Press.--ED.

The Ladies Doverdale

Sirs:

Let me straighten you out on the Ladies Doverdale. In TIME [May 7] you have a photograph of Audrey, wife of Baron Doverdale. But the story accompanying the picture is an account of the vigorous dissent of Leslie, Lady Doverdale to the rendering of the song, Lili Marlene, in her presence at a Manhattan hotel. The Dowager Lady Doverdale (Leslie) is the stepmother-in-law of Lady Doverdale (Audrey), who, as a matter of fact, has been in England throughout the war in charge of the records section of the R.A.F. Comforts Committee at the Air Ministry.

WILLIAM WHITE

London, England

P: TIME'S apologies to the Ladies Doverdale. Herewith the dissenting Dowager Lady Doverdale.--ED.

"Once-Proud Fourth Estate"

Sirs:

Your handling of the story "San Francisco Spectacle" [TIME, May 7] was masterly and TIMELY--a long overdue explanation to the public of the difference between legitimate representatives of the press and those who infest the fringes of the once-proud Fourth Estate.

With other old-school newspapermen, I have long resented the encroachment of "gossip columnists, hatchetmen, trained seals and freaks." . . . Every newspaperman is primarily and essentially a reporter. When he leaves facts to soar into the realm of rumor and gossip, he abandons his basic job and primary principle: accurate reporting of the news.

I am glad to have this additional proof that TIME cleanly draws a line between legitimate reporting and snide muckraking.

DON WELDON

Austin, Tex.

Nazis, 1918 Version

Sirs:

In case there be any left who excuse the Germans by saying, "That was the work of the Nazis," enclosed is a letter, dated 1918, from my father's brother in Scotland, telling of his experiences as a prisoner in the last war. There were no Nazis then--by name.

". . . Before I got to Graudenz my life was not worth living. They are the cruelest, dirtiest brutes under the sun, kicking & butting men about when they are working. Our daily bread ration was ten men to a loaf of black bread and thin soup, which brought on dysentery and left you in such a weak state that you were unfit for any kind of fatigue. We had to carry shells and load up trains at the point of the bayonet.

"We went to Flavy-le-Martel to make railways and had to carry those heavy rails and sleepers for twelve hours at a stretch. That was the place where [the Germans] nearly finished my career, for hunger and hard work don't go together. Out of 1,000 men, 160 died within the first ten days. . . .

"I was sent off to Stendal in Germany, a broken man. We were three days and three nights in battle trucks, 45 men in a truck. We got soup twice and one slice of black bread for the journey--men suffering from dysentery and other troubles, all locked in those trucks; you can imagine the state of affairs. Six men died on the way and two fell dead at Stendal station. I think if they had kept me there another week I should have gone under. I was in an awful state of weakness. I was paraded before an English doctor and a German and marked Z3, the lowest category the Germans have. So I was sent off to Graudenz, the English officers' camp.

"I was so thin and weak when I got there that I was stripped and paraded before all the English and American doctors, and they sent for the German doctor. . . . I don't suppose I weighed six stone. You could have hung your hat on my bones.

"Thank God it is all over and I am home once again with my wife and family. . . . I have to report back to Belfast on Feb. 20, 1919, if they don't send me my discharge before then. I hope they do, for I am no more fit to be a soldier. . . ."

CATHERINE DUFF SEABORN

Berkeley, Calif.

Bourbon & Baptists

Sirs:

On p. 1 of your April 23 Pony Edition you describe President Truman as a "devout Baptist." On p. 5 we see, "Sam Rayburn had just poured the Vice President a drink of bourbon and tap water when. . . ."

Since when do "devout" Baptists from Missouri drink bourbon? Is it possible that this is another case of TIME'S clever under-handedness in smearing our leaders? . . .

(CPL.) DON S. FLETCHER

% Postmaster

New York City

P: TIME reported correctly 1) that President Truman is a devout Baptist; 2) that he drinks bourbon.--ED.

They Want to Go Home

Sirs:

TIME [April 16] predicts months, even years before displaced persons may go home. I know this to be a needless crime against people who have suffered too much already.

These 15 million humans don't have to be screened, classified, inspected, catalogued, rehabilitated and strangled by red tape. They want to get back to their folks and their own soil after years of slavery. None are more than a few days rail or truck journey from home.

I have set up camps for well over 100,000 D.P.s. In defiance of many ponderous international agreements, I have trucked several thousand Frenchmen into France. It was all against the book, but they are home now. Quick action is possible.

[ARMY OFFICER'S NAME WITHHELD]

% Postmaster

New York City

Thomas Hardy

Sirs:

Congratulations on your good taste in printing the Thomas Hardy poem [TIME, April 23]. How long will it be before "events [will] have freshened [the] old truth" of the Hardy poem which contains the line "Had he and I but met by some old ancient inn . . .?"

ROBERTSON STRAWN

Lieutenant (j.g.), U.S.N.R.

% Fleet Post Office

San Francisco

Georgi or Grigori?

Sirs:

To be different from the crowd is a laudable ambition, but not at the expense of a fact. Every publication in the world, including Pravda, Izvestia and Red Star, calls the commander of the First White Russian Army Marshal Grigori Zhukov. TIME alone insists on Georgi.

For weeks I waited for your Russian specialist to wise up, but either he is asleep on his job or you haven't any. . . .

For your information: Grigori and Georgi are two distinct Russian names. The first corresponds to Gregory in English and the second to George. And calling Marshal Zhukov Georgi is just about the same as calling George Washington Gregory Washington. . . .

E. S. SEREBRENNIKOV

New York City

P: Not so. The Marshal's full name is Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov. Pravda, Izvestia and Red Star, which rarely, if ever, use first names, call him G. K. Zhukov. Foreign correspondents in Moscow, stumped by the G. K. when Zhukov first made important war news, decided to call him Gregory, have more or less stuck to (or been stuck with) it since.--ED.

TIME v. the Cook

Sirs:

Out here on the roughest front the 7th Division has yet bumped into in its four major operations, a platoon of doughboys from the 184th listened while I read to them your inspiring write-up on the President's death [TIME, April 23].

Thanks for giving my men a vivid picture of what really took place. It was my first issue and reached the front in eight days. . . .

It worked fine and they kept me reading in spite of the cook's calls for chow.

DAVID B. SPESSARD

Lieutenant, U.S.A.

% Postmaster

San Francisco

Great Lady

Sirs:

I think it is time someone sang a song of praise for Eleanor Roosevelt. In few of the laudatory articles about our late President does she receive any credit for her great part in making his public career as truly remarkable as it was.

After he was stricken with infantile paralysis, it was a large part she played in encouraging his resumption of public office. She often traveled to get factual material he was unable to secure for himself. She conducted herself with great dignity and graciousness, oblivious to the jokes regarding her peripatetic leanings, ignoring the petty minds who tried to stir up scandals by her sons' marital misadventures.

I for one am proud of the First Lady the White House had for so long. She and Madame Chiang Kai-shek have my vote for the two greatest ladies of this day.

MRS. H. H. EDMONDS

Los Angeles

Hot Japs

Sirs:

In direct violation of Dr. Pincher's theory of the declining birth rate [TIME, May 7] due to the overheating of the sexual organs, I would like to point out that it is a common practice in the everyday life of the Japanese to take baths at terrific temperatures. . . . Apparently the Japanese are immune to this . . . for certainly it cannot be said that the Japanese birth rate is declining. . . .

CHARLES WULFING

Clayton, Mo.

P: Says England's Dr. H. Chapman Pincher: "Japanese fertility . . . is certainly much higher than that of Britain or the U.S., but lower than that of most Asiatic countries. By nature, the Japanese are very active breeders, and compared with the number of chances given annually for conception, their actual conception rate is probably low. I believe that if the Japanese dropped the hot bath habit their birth rate would be higher still."--ED.

Sirs:

Your story of the "Too-Warm Dinosaur" was most illuminating. An old lady who lived near my boyhood home used to tell me that the greatness of the Scottish race was attributable to "patience, pairseverance, and lots of parritch." Now I realize that she neglected to tell me how effective was the local refrigeration of the kilt.

C. STUART

Toronto, Ont.

Adam & the Archbishop

Sirs:

So Archbishop Gushing of Boston blames the women for the "coarse and vulgar" modern world [TIME, May 14] ? So did Adam: "The woman Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat."

Shame on both of them. Very ungallant, to say the least.

SCOTT F. AITKEN

Hood River, Ore.

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