Anti-Semitic Twist?
Sir:
With reference to the article "AntiSemitic Twist?" [TIME, Oct. 4], am I to believe that minority groups are now attempting to censor and to prohibit the presentation of certain [cinema] classics, particularly English classics? . . .
Some individuals could go so far as to accuse a jealous Hollywood. This, too, is food for thought, because J. Arthur Rank has produced some truly great cinemas which to date have not been equaled by Hollywood.
It is my honest opinion that the Toronto [Jewish Congress] handled this "ersatz" problem in a most dignified and rational manner. All persons involved should be congratulated.
I trust that we in the U.S. shall soon be able to see Oliver Twist at our local movie theaters.
DAVID A. SHERWOOD Washington, D.C.
Sir:
... If Oliver Twist is done half as well as was Great Expectations, I want to see it ...
If it is antiSemitic, then by similar reasoning Shakespeare's Henry V is anti-French and Little Black Sambo is anti-Negro.
ROBERT E. CHANDLER New London, Conn.
Sir:
... I should have liked to see Oliver Twist; and I bitterly resent it that pressure groups should have successfully committed a breach of the democratic process in depriving me and many millions of others of our right to see that film . . .
ALAN MARSHALL Cohasset, Mass.
Smokestacks on the Sierra
Sir:
Enjoyed TIME'S [Sept. 27] coverage of Earl Warren's special train . . . Reference to the ''engine backing slowly," however, may prompt some of the West's railfan enthusiasts to write you,* since the train was powered over the Sierra not by a backward-operating locomotive but by one of this company's powerful cab-ahead-type locomotives.
These 125-foot, 6,000-horsepower, 4-8-8-2 wheel arrangement, single expansion articulated engines, distinctive of this railroad, have an enclosed cab that puts enginemen right up front so they can see more easily what's around a curve. Smokestack at other end from cab could give the illusion of backward operation to one not familiar with this type locomotive . . .
K. C. INGRAM
Southern Pacific Co. San Francisco, Calif.
Ketchup on the House
Sir:
As I read your account of Charles W. Morton's attack on the fraternity system at Williams College [TIME, Sept. 27]--and inferentially against the system in general--my immediate reaction was to diagnose his ... rehash of ancient and outmoded arguments against fraternities as a consequence of a recent attack of ulcers, a psychoneurotic ailment that brought to consciousness a childhood disappointment . . .
Perhaps the most helpful nonadministrative group connected with the educative process on the college campus today are the fraternities. By fostering school spirit, extracurricular activities and social functions, they help develop latent qualities of leadership and help broaden students' personalities . . .
EDWARD DECROSTA
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, N.Y.
Sir:
Since Charles Morton depends on his stomach for his judgment, then it is through the stomach that we would like to take issue.
The Delta Sig chapter at U.C.L.A. extends an invitation to Mr. Morton ... to come to breakfast, lunch or dinner. No prior notice will be required; just drop in ... 40-c- for breakfast, 60-c- for lunch, and 85-c- for dinner. I defy him to match our prices and food . . . Ketchup is on the house.
PAUL SIMQU
Los Angeles, Calif.
Sir:
"Amid the war of elements, the wreck of matter and the crash of worlds" descends from Parnassus (8 Arlington Street, Boston) an editor of an ancient Palladium of liberty and literature, mounts his grey gelding and rides forth to conquest.
The jabberwock he is hunting, a college fraternity, last seen some years ago at Williams College, left a stain upon this editor's blotter which must be purged by vitriol . . . Hurling three columns of ketchup at the group which inferiorated him . . he retires from the field, having given space long filled by eminent philosophers and editors to a personal and trivial hurling of tomatoes in the essence . . .
HERMAN M. SHIPPS Delaware, Ohio
Wrong Victor
Sir:
In your . . . account of "the happy war" in Hyderabad [TIME, Sept. 27], you printed a photograph of victor Chaudhuri which happens to be a photograph of Brigadier Dilip Chaudhuri, Military Attache at the Embassy of India, Washington, D.C.
The victor was the Brigadier's elder brother, Major General Joyanto Nath Chaudhuri, O.B.E., commander of an armored division in India. Both the Chaudhuris are armored corps officers, and your confusion was understandable.
Apart from this, I should like to compliment TIME . . . on a good piece of reporting.
UNNI NAYAR
Colonel
Washington, D.C.
Hearts & Flowers
Sir:
Your reviewer of my book From the Heart of Europe [TIME, Sept. 20] found "disingenuous" my simple factual statement that one of the reasons why I am not a Marxist is "that I am a Christian, not through upbringing but by conviction, and find any materialism inadequate." He would have been less disingenuous himself in his other sweeping strictures if he had also stated that on two occasions in that book I indicated that I sometimes find TIME anything but adequate in its treatment of fact, that I cited explicitly, as one of the enemies of international understanding, "the phony standardized picture" it gives of both America and Europe. He would have written a review more in accordance with TIME'S professed intention to report accurately if he had even mentioned that my book is not primarily what he calls an "excursion" into world politics, but rather an essay on "the necessity for Americans and Europeans to reach beyond the barriers of their political differences to human and cultural understanding."
F. O. MATTHIESSEN Boston, Mass.
* Twelve did. -- ED.
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