The Straits of Irresolution

Sir:

The provincials who criticize our defense of Quemoy have either forgotten or were still in diapers when millions died because they swallowed the cynical philosophy embodied in the query: "Why should we die for Danzig?" LEO L. ROCKWELL Lakeland, Fla.

Sir: So Don Quixote Uncle Sam has found another windmill in the Straits of Formosa.

WILLIAM H. ABBEY Charlton Depot, Mass.

Sir: Now, so many bitter years since Yalta, it seems there are those who still do not fully realize that each successful Communist aggression breeds another. If the Chinese Communist regime seizes the smaller Nationalist isles, either by invasion or negotiated retreat, its next step will be Formosa, then all Southeast Asia, then India.

DALE TAPP Seguin, Texas Sir: If face" the with the Western East, world we is must going to show them "save now that we mean business.

BRENDA MAHAR Colorado Springs, Colo.

Sir: You mention that the "vital difference" between Dienbienphu and Quemoy is that "United States prestige is directly at stake." With pride, I now march forward for God, country, and prestige.

ARCHIE MACDONALD Detroit

Sir: Strong public criticism [TIME, Oct. 6] of Mr. Dulles' suicidal foreign policy on Quemoy and Matsu was called a betrayal of our State Department which might lead the Communists to think we are bluffing and thereby involve us in a total war. Nixon would like to shut up public opinion simply because it exposes a ghastly mistake. Not to publish these crucial facts about the truth of public opinion in a crisis would be a mockery of democracy. Perhaps the majority of Americans will reject Nixon's brand of democracy in the next election.

GEORGE WHITEHALL

New York City Sir:

Beleaguered Quemoy is as much beleaguered by the beleaguered use of the word beleaguered as it is by the Communists.

ERIC TOLMACH

New York City

Family of Distinction Sir: The Dr. Jean Persons, a public-health physician in Alaska whom you refer to in MEDICINE of the Oct. 6 issue, is the daughter of the Rev. Frank Stanford Persons II. Her uncle, Wilton Burton Persons, is the man President Eisenhower tapped to be his new White House chief of staff (NATIONAL AFFAIRS, same issue).

ZIMMY SLUDER Newburgh, N.Y.

Unrecognized Treasure Sir: Reading your article about the discovery of a Cellini bust by the De Young Museum of San Francisco [TIME, Oct. 61, I felt worse than a bridegroom reading the account of his wedding. At least the bridegroom gets his name mentioned. You omitted the fact that the bust languished in my Mond'art Galler ies, a nameless orphan, until Museum Director Walter Heil came along, gave it a name and parentage: Cosimo de Medici by Benvenuto ellini.

ROBERT GITTELSON New York City

In Black &White; Sir: Three of my most heartfelt cheers to Britain's Mr. Justice Salmon on his most eloquent speech before sentencing the nine "nigger-hunting" youths to four years each [TIME, Sept. 29]. Let's put some of our punks away for a long while, and make any possible future delinquent think half a dozen times of the benefits of a noncriminal life.

WILLIAM M. JOHNSON Chicago Sir: When some day Governor Faubus stands before a tribunal to be adjudged for his disgusting actions, I hope the presiding judge is of the caliber of London's stern but humanistic Mr. Justice Salmon.

WARREN A. COOK Dearborn, Mich.

Sir: Can the Dixie Diehards comprehend what our country's protection on the high seas would be like if say, off Quemoy, a ship's boiler room shut down because the whites wouldn't work with the Negroes? (YN2) S. C. SHERBURNE U.S.N.

Great Lakes, 111.

Sir: I have been wondering if Faubus' next proposal will be segregated cemeteries for the nation's war dead.

(PvT.) EDGAR E. MARTIN Jacksonville Sir: Will the TV lessons in Little Rock be tele cast in color or black and white? WILLIAM E. GILLIS Plymouth, Mass.

Religion & Racism Sir' In alleging that Arkansas' Presbyterian ministers advocate the practice of brother hood as a consequence of having been "brain washed by left-wingers and Communists" [TIME, Sept. 29], Governor Faubus pays the Communists an unnecessary and unmerited compliment. The Communists do seem to know more about brotherhood than Faubus does, so he could, with profit, go to school with them. But the idea of the brotherhood of all men derives rather from certain Old! Testament writers, the Stoic philosophers, or Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

GEORGE JONES JR.

Minister Smithfield Friends' Meeting Woonsocket, R.I.

Sir: As my minister father likes to say: Be there a minister with soul so dead, Who never has been called a Red? BETTY SIMER ROWLEY Peru, 111.

The View from Abroad Sir: Please convey to Angie Evans for her cou rageous stand for school integration [TIME, Sept. 22] the sincere congratulations of young nonwhite South Africans, who know only too well the suffering and humiliation of their brethren in the Southern states of America.

We are gratified that in your country, whose policies and actions often evoke widespread anxiety and condemnation, there are young people like Angie Evans who show us that there is another side to the U.S.

MOOSA MOOLLA Johannesburg

Sir: What the newspaper-reading portion of the people read and remember here is not that Marian Anderson, Jackie Robinson and Ralph Bunche are accepted citizens of the United States, but that people who have the same color skin that they have are being treated as inferiors.

REUBEN J. BALZER, M.D.

Dessie, Ethiopia Four Horsemen Sir: The identification of the first two Horse men in Revelations seems so obvious that I am amazed at ex-President Hoover's attempt [TIME, Sept. 29] to make the second Horse man stand for Revolution. On a red horse, with a great sword, he takes "peace from the earth"and makes men "kill one another " He is War.

The first Horseman cannot be War. His horse is white, he is crowned, he goes forth with a bow to conquer. He is Antichrist.

SAMUEL A. ELIOT Northampton, Mass.

Sir: Does Mr. Hoover think that Christ gave John a "Revolution"? JOAN HUGHES Canton, Ohio Freedom on Fiji SIR: MOHAMMED TORAH's SNEER ABOUT FIJI AS WHITE MAN'S PARADISE, BLACK MAN'S HELL [TIME, Sept. 22] is RIDICULOUS. IN FIJI NEA LY 35O,OOO PEOPLE OF SEVERAL RACES LIVE AMICABLY. STANDARDS OF LIVING ARE HIGH FOR ALL.

ANY RESIDENT OF FIJI WHO DISLIKES THE GOVERNMENT AND CONDITIONS IS PERFECTLY FREE TO LEAVE AND GO TO LIVE IN ANY PLACE OF HIS CHOICE, HEAVENLY OR HELLISH. AS A VISITOR TO FIJI, I FIND IT DELIGHTFUL AND NEITHER A HELL NOR A HEAVEN FOR ANYONE.

S. S. TYLER SUVA, FIJI I.

Yukon Troubadour

Sir: Thank you for your tribute to Robert Service [Sept. 22]. An old "ex-Yukon" patient in a Nova Scotia hospital once told me he had lived in a tent next to Bob Service.

Bob's tent mate always said Bob would "never make any money in gold -- all he does is write." EVELYN S. MACKAY Madison, Wis.

Adams' Fall Sir: As a registered Republican, it disgusted me to read of the actions of prominent members of the G.O.P. concerning Sherman Adams.

Just what kind of leaders do they have in the party who whine like a child when the smallest storm arises? Those lackluster politicians who ever since this investigation broke have been sounding like sob sisters trying to make Adams quit --who needs them? CHARLES F. BUTLER North Abington, Mass.

Sir: There's joy in D.C. Mudville, For Adams has struck out.

MARGARET RADCLIFFE GOOCH Washington

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