The Curtain of Ignorance
Sir:
As a former radio propaganda writer for Army Psychological Warfare in the Far East, I was appalled when I read Attlee's favorable impressions on Red China [Sept. 20]. As we G.I.s used to say: "Never happen !" . .
LAWRENCE A. BREHNE North Bergen, N.J.
Sir:
Re the Labor Party's visit to China: if Attlee and clique wish to see real Chinese democracy, may I suggest an enlightening trip to the island of Formosa. Only there can they today expect to see uninhibited Chinese reaction to social and political injustices--and they won't need their "made-in-Socialist England" rose-colored glasses to enjoy these advancements being made by the "New" China developing on Formosa.
GEORGE C. KENNEDY JR. Philadelphia
Sir:
Your "Curtain of Ignorance" article about Attlee et al is an unblushing twisting and slanting of the news. Surely you underestimate the intelligence of the American reader. Up here we believe there is a great deal of truth in what Attlee says . . .
C. C. MAHON Calgary, Alta.
Sir:
. . . All over the world reports come in showing the common man wavering in his resolution against slavery, obviously trying to convince himself that "coexistence" is the answer. The ordinary man doesn't become concerned about the Communist advance (he is interested in low taxes and high income, i.e., the immediate future) until it is very nearly too late. Then he panics and switches to coexistence . . .
I think history will conclude that democracy as an institution was exterminated, like the dodo and the passenger pigeon, because it was unable to anticipate trouble with intelligent action; it could only react blindly like a jellyfish when stimulated by immediate contact . .
ALFRED B. MASON
Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Sir:
. . . Possibly the efforts of simple, sincere men searching for a way out are beyond your ken.
HUGH J. MAGUIRE Collingdale, Pa.
Sir:
. . . The prevalent American attitude is that Red China is an enemy and is totally and irrevocably wedded in policy to the Soviet Union. The more common attitude outside of the U.S. is that there is a possibility that Red China can be weaned away from Russia, that its size and its national pride will make it an uncomfortable satellite for Russia to try to manage . . .
Attlee would prefer to see a China that feels in a position to be a little aloof from Russia. A Communist China which regards itself as the equal of Russia and which may feel that its interests clash with those of Russia in Asia is a better prospect for the Western world than a China which is made to feel that it must lean on Russia or face the prospect of having enemies on both flanks . . .
DUDLEY A. BRISTOW Willowdale, Ont.
Sir:
Even ubiquitous TIME has no bureau in Dante's inferno--but is not Beelzebub your stringer? Only supernatural news sources could have supplied Mr. Attlee's comments he did not make about a place he did not visit ["Different people had different tastes, but it did seem rather too hot"].
What is the use of condensing the news, if in the space you save you print such devilish vapor?
JOHN DELEJ New York City
P:TIME found the shades up.--ED.
Diamonds on the Left
Sir:
My God! How can you so misclassify news as to put Prophet Jones on your otherwise fine religious page [Sept. 20] ? Doesn't this newsworthy bit belong rather under People? Appearing under Religion it seems more like sacrilege.
(THE REV.) THEODORE H. RESSLER Church of the Messiah Flushing, L.I.
Shots in the Dark
Sir:
Hearty congratulations on your spread of color shots taken at night [Sept. 20]. As a former Buffalonian who has seen the Falls from many angles both day and night I can only say "bravo" for a shot of the Falls that I'll forever be envious of . . .
T. J. GOULD Baltimore
Sir:
Your pictures [were] great and very colorful but why in the world did you leave out the most beautiful "Sight in Lights" in America? I am referring to the lights seen in the hills of Berkeley and Oakland from the San Francisco Bay bridge.
TOM W. MCLEOD Valdosta, Ga.
Sir:
Please rent a blimp for Mr. George Hunter and insist that he continue his series of photographs . . .
JOHN H. MORTON, M.D. Los Angeles
Tantalizing Tiglon
Sir:
In TIME, Sept. 20 you state that Irving Ives has been described "as a political tiglon."
I guess I'll have to throw away my dictionaries--I give up. What's a tiglon?
R. A. HUEBNER, V.M.D. Havertown, Pa.
Sir:
. . .If you are going to use words of undisclosed meaning, words that are ultradictionary and metaempiric, and otherwise indulge in the egghead propensity of flying off into the wide blue yonder, how are we, as telluric clods, to know what you are talking about or what you are up to ?
HERBERT MIRSCHEL Hempstead, L.I.
P: As any zoophilic tellurian should know, a tiglon (see cut) is the offspring of a male tiger and a female lion.--ED.
A Fitting Style
Sir:
Your April 26 story on our radio program, Night Watch, was an excellent article, well written, and one that we are very proud of. However, I disagreed with [your statement]: "The program's principal drawback is Reed's own overdramatic commentary." . . .
Recently, we went back and replayed some of our early shows, including the ones that were reviewed by your magazine. As much as I hate to admit it, your analysis was correct. I definitely overdramatized the events. Since that time ... I have changed into a more matter-of-fact style and let the dramatic event carry the situation. I sincerely believed I was right, but time and experience have proved that your reviewer was correct . . .
DONN REED Hollywood
Judgments & Prophecies
Sir:
It is a pleasure to see that page of Judgments & Prophecies, where men speak out their ideas and call men and countries by their correct names and do not hide their identities. I would like to quote a prophecy by Teddy Roosevelt, a man who spoke out his convictions, with only one meaning. I would place the date about 1914.
"If Germany is smashed, it is perfectly possible that later she will have to be supported as a bulwark against the Slav by the nations of Western Europe."
For the moment, France is delaying its fulfillment.
B. A. PRINCE Westfield, Mass.
Sir:
"Collective Security a Myth?" (TIME, Sept. 20). Fiddlesticks. In a world where atomic bombers can reach any place in less than a day, there is no security for any nation except a collective security.
Sure, the U.N. has failed to provide collective security. That is the failure of the U.N., not of collective security. If the U.N. were truly a U.N., we would have collective security . . .
With prayer, clear thinking and hard work, let us go forward, not backward, from the U.N. There is a pattern by which nations can achieve collective security, even as states already have within the national framework . . .
(THE REV.) FRANKLIN LOEHR Los Angeles
The P.F.C.'s
Sir:
"Veterans' payments double the price of war" TIME, Sept. 13]. What did the stay-at-home civilian profiteering do to the cost of war?
Wars would be cheaper if we bred soldiers, didn't pay them, and exterminated the "veterans" after each conflict. Then you Poor Foolish Civilians could keep all the money.
PETER B. SMITH San Francisco
Sir:
. . . We should suggest to those Legionnaires who are agitating for this $100 per month pension at the age of 60 that they earn it by correspondence courses, active duty for training, participation in reserve drill as the rest of us are.
FRANK R. REYNOLDS
Lieutenant, U.S.N.R. Modesto, Calif.
Pressure Point
Sir:
Re "Supercooled Blood," [Sept. 13] has Dr. Scholander considered the fact that the freezing point of liquids and solutions is affected by pressure, so that increasing pressures bring about a lowering of the freezing point of a liquid-solid system? . . .
HOWARD S. STERN Waterford, N.Y.
P:Increased pressure at lower depths is a factor in keeping Dr. Scholander's arctic fish in circulation, but is not enough to explain the mystery.--ED.
Boilermaker
Sir:
I was delighted by your article "The Great Steamer" [Sept. 20], as, I am sure, were the great many other lovers of steam and antique autos in the U.S. Paul Tusek's adventure is part of the great glory of an almost lost art: automobiling for fun . . .
There is only one recorded incident of a steam car boiler exploding. This occurred at a testing pit of the Stanley Steam Car Co. when a boiler was tested to destruction under conditions impossible in an automobile. I heard of one other incident, during the '20s however, I don't think it should count, as the boiler was being used as a still at the time . . .
LEONARD W. FELSTINER Monterey, Calif.
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