Congo Atrocities

Sir: As a surgeon in training who has had experience with medical missions, I could not help wincing as I read the gruesome, gory details of the Congo massacre [Dec. 4]. Dr. Paul Carlson's death is immeasurably tragic. But we know this won't discourage others in our profession from making humanitarian missions to people who need our help very badly, like the Africans whom we should pity more than loathe for that barbaric deed.

T. D. BONZON, M.D.

Flushing, N.Y.

Sir: According to you, when a white man murders innocent Africans, he is only living up to his name as a mercenary and spraying savage Simbas, but when an African kills an intruding Caucasian, his condemnable action only shows that all Africans are atrocious cannibals warring against the civilized Christian and humanitarian white race! As a Nigerian, may I ask if you have forgotten the three civil rights martyrs of white Mississippi in the heart of "civilization"? No wonder the Chinese Communists have a case!

ADEOLA ADE MAFO

Los Angeles

Sir: It seems almost unbelievable that anyone, regardless of his nationality or political convictions, could vilify the Americans, British and Belgians for their humanitarian act in trying to rescue as many as possible of the white hostages in the Congo. Yet the Communists and their fellow travelers have the unmitigated gall to call this action "aggression, a warlike act," etc. Thank God America is still able to do all it can to protect its citizens.

JEAN SCHOEN

El Paso

Sir: Your attempt to depict the actions of a small and fanatic group as expressive of Africa and Africans generally would, I suspect, have distressed Dr. Carlson himself. Similar tragedies have been enacted among many peoples and in many periods of history, and surely the point of Conrad's story is that the "heart of darkness" lurks in us all.

JOHN DEMOS

Somerville, Mass.

Sir: Ever since the first reports began trickling in of the butchery in the Congo, I have been running around to my fellow whites calling on them to rejoice. "By golly," I cry, "those goddam nuns, missionaries and doctors are really getting what they deserve. What are they but a bunch of lousy outside agitators, not even of the same race, going in there trying to change the Congolese way of life? Don't they have enough sin and disease back where they came from? Why don't they clean up the mess at home before bothering other people?"

It was funny in a way, particularly since the white Mississippian will nod his head zealously through about two-thirds of the spiel, until he gets the point. Slack-jawed indignation ensues. I am afraid, though, that you have ruined my sardonic joke. I got half way through your cover story before nausea overtook me, and it occurred to me that blind barbarism--in the Congo, in Mississippi--is the one citadel that will not tumble before mockery.

RICHARD W. BOETH

Rosedale, Miss.

Man of the Year

Sir: For Man of the Year I nominate Dr. Paul Carlson.

(MRS.) ARVILD JACOBSON

Antanimora, Madagascar

Sir: Chief Justice Earl Warren.

MARVIN E. COBLE III

Burlington, N.C.

Sir: The trio of civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi.

JOHN L. SUTER

Chiasso, Switzerland

Sir: Ara Parseghian.

JOHN KROPINAK

Belleville, Ont.

Ecumenical Disputes

Sir: Perhaps the third session of the Ecumenical Council now completed should be known as the "Grand Illusion." The unyielding attitude of a powerful few on the religious-liberty issue, in the face of overwhelming approval, presages failure for "letting in a little fresh air," as envisioned by Pope John.

C. L. KUCERA

Columbia, Mo.

Sir: What TIME overlooks in its appraisal of the Ecumenical Council is that if there is a need for a mystical body such as the Roman Catholic Church, then it cannot be democratic. In the ideal democracy every man celebrates the continuous mystery of himself at the altar of his own divinity. In a world oriented to incentives, gain, self-aggrandizement and sanctified greed, there is an urgent need for a mystical, symbolic figure, which the role of Pope fulfills.

JOHN McCLOSKEY

New York City

Sir: How pitiful that the Roman Catholic Church, in its frenzied effort to curry Protestant favor by emulation, has stripped the Mass of its unique significance, taken away the non-Catholic's prime source of attraction, and given its members another strong reason to re-examine a church that now resembles every other church except for one thing-- birth control.

(MRS.) JOAN D. LADD

Niagara Falls, N.Y.

Sir: As a former dyed-in-the-wool conservative, I now wildly applaud the new changes in the Mass. Expecting the worst, I instead found myself involved in the most fascinating experience.

ALICE R. O'HARA

Hartford, Conn.

Four too Much

Sirs: I found to my great surprise that my age was increased four years by you in the article, "Thrills, Spills & Pola Negri" [Nov. 20]. The magazine stated that I was 69 years old. In reality, according to my birth certificate and passport, I was born on the 31st of December, 1899.

POLA NEGRI

San Antonio

Defending Alabamians

Sir: Though not so intended, an expression in your article on the Fifth Circuit Court [Dec. 4] does a serious injustice to my fellow Alabamians, viz.: "After his son's death in an auto accident, Judge Richard T. Rives was honored by his fellow Alabamians--they threw garbage on his son's grave."

My son was killed more than two years before I became a judge. Many years after I had gone on the bench, someone, whether an Alabamian or not I have no means of knowing, threw red paint and garbage on our son's grave. Whoever committed such an atrocity must have been mentally ill. Certainly, it should not be charged to my fellow Alabamians, the overwhelming majority of whom are as fine, decent, and fair-minded people as can be found anywhere.

RICHARD T. RIVES

U.S. Court of Appeals

Montgomery, Ala.

Moneyed Prince Charlie

Sir: My attention has been drawn to your report [Nov. 27] entitled "The Princely Pauper." There is no truth whatever in the story that Prince Charles has sold his autograph at any time. There is also no truth whatever in the story that he sold his composition book to a classmate. In the first place, he is intelligent and old enough to realize how embarrassing this would turn out to be. and second, he is only too conscious of the interest of the press in anything to do with himself and his family. The suggestion that his parents keep him so short of money that he has to find other means to raise it is also a complete invention. Finally, the police would not have attempted to regain the composition book unless they were quite satisfied that it had been obtained illegally.

As to the essays in the book, you may be interested to know that the one about corruption in government, which you quote, was in fact a precis from Lecky's History of England.

RICHARD COLVILLE

Buckingham Palace

London

> The royal family's press officer mounts a princely defense in his belated offer to clarify the case.

Wake Forest Revolt

Sir: I was overjoyed to read about the student revolt against church authority at Wake Forest [Nov. 27]. I am a senior at a college where the religious situation and requirements are identical with those at Wake Forest. I expect to hear about the students here causing a similar show of defiance--and I suspect that students in all such cases ultimately win.

CRAIG CHILTON

Central College

Pella, Iowa

Sir: Any denominational college, be it Catholic, Jewish, Methodist or Baptist, has the right to adhere to policies formulated by the denomination, boards of trustees, and administrators. If students are not mature enough to respect these policies and live under them, then I propose they seek an education elsewhere.

JENNIE SUE JOHNSON

Director of Student Activities

Bluefield College

Bluefield, W. Va.

Granada Did It

Sir: Alas, TIME erred. It was Granada Television, not the BBC, that presented four full-length plays by the "Outpatient of the Year," Noel Coward, on successive weeks [Dec. 4].

SIDNEY BERNSTEIN

Granada T.V. Network

London

The Commonwealth Way

Sir: Would not "trial by newspaper" [Nov. 27] cease or be drastically curtailed in the U.S. if the British Commonwealth legal principle in such cases were followed? Under this procedure, once an accused has been brought into court nothing may be said publicly about the case that is not given in evidence in court, on pain of contempt proceedings. Further, although a crime may be described in the press before any court action is initiated or before an arrest is made, nothing may be said or implied that would link any particular person with the execution of that crime until he appears in court--again, on pain of contempt proceedings.

W. KINGSLEY ORD

Epsom, Auckland, N.Z.

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