Second Nation

Sir: The Russians are great "copycat" people and feel that such methods will overcome their shortcomings. Your cover story [Feb. 21] points out so well that Russia is not "No. 2" in the world but a "second-class" nation. We are so far ahead of them that they'll never catch up under their system of government.

ADOLPHUS W. HAWKINS JR. Richmond

Sir: I visited the Soviet Union in 1960, saw many outstanding material things, and found the Russians one of the friendliest groups of people in all of Europe. The one thing that made a profound impression on me was their sincere desire for peace. When I saw them crying, begging and praying for peace, I was deeply moved. The Russians love their country, are proud of its accomplishments, and will work for a better life. They are trying; give them credit.

DAVID B. ZERWECK San Jose, Calif.

Sir: I think the most telling item in your article is that browsing is not permitted in Russian bookstores. Our million-a-year browsers would revolt under such a regime.

Louis EPSTEIN President

Pickwick Bookshop Hollywood

Divided Island

Sir: The trouble with Cyprus [Feb. 14] is that there are no Cypriots. Deep down in their hearts they are either Greeks or Turks. As long as this feeling remains, there will never be peace on that island. So why not divide the island in order to prevent another bloody Congo?

CONSTANTINE KOUSARIDES

Howard Payne College Brownwood, Texas

Sir: As a Greek studying in the U.S., I am greatly disturbed and disappointed by the prejudicial way in which your correspondent covered the Cyprus crisis. The green line that appears on the map of Cyprus and that you call "possible partition line," adds more hatred and misunderstanding to the already complicated situation there.

ELEFTERIOS TSARAS University of Illinois Chicago

National Reps Sir: Your spotlighting of repertory theaters [Feb. 14] has helped the cause of the theater and has shown us that the lonely battle we have been fighting is not so isolated as we thought. Recognizing our struggles as part of a national restlessness in the dramatic arts gives our morale a decided lift.

ED SIEMENS Producer/Director Actors' Theatre Seattle Sir: You neglected any mention of several of the most important theaters in the country, including the oldest (the Cleveland Play House--49 years old). In addition, Boston's Charles Playhouse (seven years old; 7,600 season subscribers) would have been discovered, by even an elementary reporting job, to be on a level with the best regional professional theaters in the U.S.

FRANK SUGRUE Producer-Managing Director The Charles Playhouse Boston Sir: Your fine article was a godsend to the Memphis community. People at long last are beginning to appreciate what actor-director-producer George Touliatos has been fighting so hard to keep alive --talent.

ANDREA G. WARREN Memphis

Diplomatic Correspondence

Sir: As former U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, I should like to present my view of recent events there [Jan. 31]. The U.S. did not "ardently support" Juan Bosch for President. We would have had no reason to; the other leading candidates were equally friendly to the U.S. Nor was I in any sense the "primary backer" of President Bosch. He was freely elected by the Dominican people, and as U.S. ambassador I worked as best I could with him, as I had previously worked with the provisional government, to help strengthen Dominican democracy.

I considered the coup that overthrew him a serious blow to representative constitutional democracy. Your implication that I resigned because I disagreed with our policy of recognizing the regime that overthrew him is incorrect. I was in full accord with our policy of first withholding, then granting, recognition; I helped formulate it. I resigned to write a book about the Dominican Republic and the uses and limits of American power.

JOHN BARTLOW MARTIN Highland Park, Ill. The Snows of Yesteryear

Sir: You make a most unfair and incorrect reference to us in your Feb. 21 story on Beverly Hills. First it was not "one slow summer day," but just before Christmas, and we did not provide "sleds and skis for a couple of hundred friends." It was a long, hard, slogging job of several weeks' organization for a Christmas Snow Party to be given on the Beverly Hills Hotel grounds for Mrs. Abe Leah's charity for needy actors.

Every item, including the artificial snow, was donated. On the day of the party a freak storm washed out everything in a few hours. With the assistance of the studios and some good friends, Mrs. Rathbone in a few hours reorganized her party inside the Beverly Hills Hotel and still realized some $10,000 for the charity.

The day following the party Mrs. Rathbone, completely exhausted, went to the hospital with pneumonia.

BASIL RATHBONE New York City

> TIME bows to Actor Rathbone's memory of that exhausting party 24 years ago.--ED.

A Brave Man Sir: I wish to salute the Negro attache, Emerson Player, whom you mention in your article on Ghana [Feb. 14]. He is a truly brave man, and surely his act will be remembered by the Ghanaians and pondered when Red propaganda about mistreatment of Negroes is spouted.

BARBARA H. BELL El Cajon, Calif.

Real Mark Sir: The term realtor was misused in the Jan. 17 issue of TIME.

Realtor is not a synonym for real estate agent. A realtor is a person engaged in the real estate business who is a board member or an individual member of the National Association of Real Estate Boards. The term realtor is a collective mark (similar to a trademark) registered in the U.S. Patent Office by the National Association of Real Estate Boards, and may be used as a designation only by the 75,000 who are members.

EDWIN L. STOLL National Association of Real Estate Boards Washington, D.C.

Russian Amateurs?

Sir: I was absolutely amazed to discover TIME's revelation of Lidia Skoblikova's occupation: a schoolteacher! [Feb. 14].

As a teacher you have me guessing! How could she "find time for some seven hours of practice every day, lift weights, work out on roller skates, and run as many as 40 200-meter sprints in the afternoon under the watchful eye of a coach?" Please let us in on her big secret. When does she grade her papers? VIRGINIA COLSON DUFFIELD Garden Grove, Calif.

> Most of her classes, the Russians say, are in the morning.--ED.

Sir: Unlike participants from the U.S., the Soviet Olympic contestants are fulltime professionals heavily subsidized by their Red governments. In contrast, our contestants have other fulltime jobs to support their families; they are amateurs, and they depend for their expenses on the free-will offerings of Americans.

S. E. MARTIN Chippewa Falls, Wis.

Sir: Surely the Olympics' most outstanding winners were the real amateurs of Scandinavia. The woodcutters, office clerks, factory workers and farmers of Norway alone won 15 medals, gaining second place after Russia in the overall ratings.

VALDEMAR MATHESON Oslo, Norway

Sir: "There are some sports the Russians still can't fathom. They play terrible tennis, they swim like drain plugs." Don't be shocked if a few drain plugs win gold medals at the summer Olympic Games at Tokyo.

Soviet Drain Plug Ivan Karetnikov and Fellow Plug Georgij Prokopenko led the world last year (1963) in the breast stroke, an Olympic event, ranking first and second. The Russians also placed men in the first ten in world rank in three other Olympic events. The drain plugs won't be in Tokyo just for the bath.

ALBERT SCHOENFIELD Editor

Swimming World North Hollywood, Calif. Pop Puff

Sir: I was delighted with your "Life With Pop" article [Feb. 21]. Many friends phoned, and in all cases they were completely charmed by the color spread. Even those friends of ours who are not Pop art aficionados told us it was one of the best documents of our time.

ROBERT C. SCULL New York City

Filling Up the Green

Sir: My fellow students and I in the department of Landscape Architecture cheered your most timely article concerning encroachment on urban open spaces [Feb. 14].

The insane national trend of filling up the already woefully few parks and urban green spaces to save money in land costs will surely be paid for dearly in the confusion and congestion of future generations.

Open space can, through good design, be used positively to give structure and order to our cities. Its importance is as great as buildings or expressways. It must not be continually sacrificed for them. WILLIAM H. TISHLER Graduate School of Design Harvard University Cambridge, Mass.

Sir: To disturb one inch of our ever-popular "banks of the Charles" is to rob us and our children of one of Boston's "crowning glories." We must not become an asphalt jungle.

SARA M. PIERCE Melrose, Mass.

Sir: My encouragement to the Cambridge Planning Board and the thousands of other citizens interested in preserving what little space remains for quiet contemplation within metropolitan areas. Like so many other things, urban recreational space has been needlessly swept away in the wake of blind expediency.

DONALD F. KOSTECKI St. Louis

Musicians?

Sir: Did the Beatles' affectation [Feb. 21] evolve from Caravaggio's The Musicians'!

FREDA S. Moss Kingsport, Tenn.

Sir: Please don't joke about the Beatles. Encourage them! As a music teacher and composer of children's music, I like to see anyone become successful in the music field whether he's a Beethoven or a Presley. We need musical expression! So I say hurrah for the Beatles.

ALFA KENT Austin, Texas

Sir: I do not regard myself as an old fogy, being 13, yet the Beatles strike me as the typical bandwagon idiocy-ecstasy that American teen-agers are sucked in by.

PAUL ISAAC Eastchester, N.Y.

Sir: I think the Beatles are one of the best things to come to America since jazz. Their music is different, but not if you understand the feel. We teen-agers love the Beatles, shag-mopped, screaming and pop-wailers that they are.

KRISTINE FONTES Lancaster, Pa.

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