One of our Canadian readers wrote us recently as follows:

"Home in Canada after six months journeying in Britain and Europe by car, I want to thank TIME for being in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, Paris, the Riviera, Genoa, Rome, Florence, Milan, Venice, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam -- keeping us informed not only of the events we were seeing but also of what was happening in the rest of the world where we weren't."

That a weekly copy of TIME was available to our voyaging Canadian in the major cities of his continental tour is cause for some pride and considerable effort on the part of TIME-LIFE International, which publishes and distributes TIME'S four overseas editions. For TIME'S circulation abroad is governed not only by reader interest and knowledge of English, but by a host of factors known to every U.S. foreign trader. Chief among them--because of the world-wide dollar shortage--are foreign government exchange controls and import restrictions.

To maintain its distribution of TIME overseas, TLI has to deal with 85 different political entities, each with its own currency and currency problems. So far, TLI has had to establish 24 basic subscription prices in local currencies and 60 different newsstand rates. In several countries yearly subscription prices must equal or exceed the total of 52 newsstand copies. In Norway, all subscriptions must be entered through agents; in Finland, through the post office. In New Zealand, no new subscriptions at all may be solicited. In China, because of currency fluctuations, newsstand prices are subject to change weekly.

Thanks to the cooperation of the governments concerned, means have Ween found to overcome many of our foreign exchange problems. Until last spring, for instance, Italians could buy TIME on the basis of the French franc (i.e., Italian subscribers and newsstand buyers paid for TIME in lira, which were exchanged for francs and remitted to our Paris office). This worked well until the Italian Government, by importing more from France than it exported, ran out of francs and TIME could no longer clear its Italian lira remittances. At that juncture the Government, expressing its desire to continue having TIME & LIFE in Italy, agreed to permit imports of TIME with payments in lira to be used for maintaining TLI's editorial bureau in Rome. As a result, our present print order of TIME for Italy is determined by the amount of our expense of doing business there.

The problems of many overseas readers wanting to subscribe to TIME have been equally complicated. In some instances, the subscriber has had to go to his bank and stand in line for a magazine application subscription form of some 100-odd questions, in sextuplicate. Having filled it out, he then had to take it to the exchange control authorities who might take from a week to six months to affirm or deny it. If his request were granted, he again had to go to his bank for a dollar draft to send to us. To overcome this delay, 23 banks and offices throughout the world are presently acting as clearing houses for us, accepting subscribers' checks in their local currency and transmitting the amounts to us in dollars.

These international branch office and banking arrangements make TIME an especially easy gift for Christmas giving from one part of the world to another. A Brazilian, for example, without having to bother about an export permit, can enter a gift subscription for a friend in Australia by simply placing his order, accompanied by payment in Brazilian currency, with TIME'S Rio de Janeiro office. Furthermore, because such orders are airmailed to TIME'S branch printing points, gift orders received by December 10 can be fulfilled with TIME'S Christmas issue.

U.S. readers, of course, can enter gifts of TIME'S air-delivered International editions for their friends overseas by writing to our Chicago circulation offices.

Cordially,

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.