The urgency and import of the news from Asia has moved the editors to alter TIME'S news format for this issue. As a result, in National Affairs' accustomed place you will find an eleven-page special section called War In Asia.

War In Asia is the work of the editors and writers of the Foreign News, International and National Affairs departments--and of TIME Inc.'s correspondents in the U.S. and overseas.

What were U.S. citizens doing and thinking last week about this new crisis in their lives? Was the U.S. ready for it? Would the U.S. economy be put on a war basis? What was Congress' reaction? What was the background of the conflict? These are some of the questions that War In Asia tries to answer.

As you can read in Correspondent Frank Gibney's first-person account from the battlefront, the war in Korea was only four days old when he became TIME Inc.'s first casualty. He is now out of the hospital and back on the job. You may recall his timely appraisal of the Korean situation in our June 5 issue. Before he became head of our Tokyo bureau, Gibney had served four years in the U.S. Navy, where he learned Japanese and was aide and flag lieutenant to Admiral Robert M. Griffin in Japan.

The outbreak of war in Korea found only three U.S. correspondents on hand there. Our Hong Kong bureau chief, Wilson Fielder, was sent to Tokyo to work on the MacArthur cover story for this issue. Carl Mydans. who had returned to New York after running the Tokyo bureau for the last three years, turned around and headed back for the Far East. LIFE Editor John Osborne, a former TIME senior editor, who was in the Philippines on a swing through the Far East, took off for For mosa via Hong Kong. David Duncan, LIFE photographer, who had left Japan originally with Gibney, was "some where in Korea."

Those of you who did not get the made-over edition of TIME'S July 3 issue, containing the news of the President's decision on the Korean war, are owed an explanation. When TIME went to press as usual late Monday night, President Truman had not been heard from and the U.S. position in the conflict was still publicly undecided. Our Washington bureau reporters stood by and waited. Arrangements were made to have a skeleton staff on hand at the editorial offices in New York for a Tuesday newsbreak. At 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, when word of the President's announcement came, TIME was being printed on schedule. Editor T. S.

Matthews ordered the presses stopped in mid-run for the story of U.S. armed intervention in Korea. Two pages each of National Affairs and International were reopened; the stories were rewritten. At 4 p.m. the presses were rolling again.

As a result, about a fifth of you failed to receive the re-make of TIME. However, if those of you who got first-run copies would like to have a copy of the re-make for your files, please let me know. I will be happy to send you one as long as the supply lasts.

Cordially yours,

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