Shining Light

Sirs: Do TIME'S photographers have on a secret wager to find the most unattractive possible pose of Dorothy Thompson [see cut, centre --TIME, Jan. 6] for their admirable journal? So it appears; and it seems too bad to the number of TIME devotees who find in Miss Thompson . . . one of the steadily increasing lights now shining in a dark place. MRS. CURTIS CRUMP Asheville, N. C.

> Reprinted (left and right of the cut to which Reader Crump objects) are two other Thompson photographs. Let Reader Crump take her pick. To picture editors able Miss Thompson presents a problem. She usually looks best with her mouth closed, but in most newspictures of her it is open.--ED.

Impression

Sirs: I am a British girl of 13. I have been in America for about five months. Recently I was talking with some other British children. Rather naturally the conversation was about America, and Americans. About the impression we have recieved of the people and their country. I should like you, and all other Americans to know, and I do not think one British evacuee whould contradict me. That the impression which will go back to England with us, will not be fair, nor medium, but very good indeed. It will be an impression of some of the kindest, most hospitable and generous people in the world. ANNE DAY Brookline, Mass.

Punch for Punch

Sirs: The man who wrote of Churchill, Man of the Vear, in the Jan. 6 issue of TIME, is also a great master of words. As an Irishman, having long heard that England could fight to the last Irishman, I must now say that it can also fight to the last Englishman. A champion is never an accident--for long--said Frank Moran to me--one of the great bruisers of his era. I fully realize that there are those who say that Churchill represents a dying social system. If that is true, he still knows how to hold his hands up and to face the world throwing punch for punch. . . . JIM TULLY Canoga Park, Calif.

> Tough Wordmaster Jim Tully (Beggars of Life, Shanty Irish, Shadows of Men), ex-hobo, ex-roustabout, ex-laborer, ex-prize fighter, should know a fighter when he sees one.--ED.

Extended Shores

Sirs: Roosevelt's pre-election pledge, "Keeping the war away from our shores," has been so successful that, now, we must extend the shores to reach the war. C. OSCAR STONE Cut Bank, Mont.

Other Septembers

Sirs: Wheeler, Marshall and others of their ilk tell us that Hitler cannot cross the Atlantic and that Europe's wars are not ours. The air is full of suggestions as to what he can't do. Time was when he also couldn't get past the Maginot Line, or through the flooded fields of Holland, or up the steep mountain trails of Norway. Much is made of the fact that he has not crossed the English Channel. He was not there last September, but there are other Septembers. . . . AUBRY MILLER Alhambra, Calif.

Marines Giving Milk?

Sirs: Yes--let's do send food to the starving women and children in Europe and let's send the Marines along to help the Red Cross distribute it. I believe a representative of the United States Government in military uniform with a can of condensed milk in his hand instead of a hand grenade would do more to restore hope and courage ... in the democracies than anything we could do for the peoples of Europe now. Let's send the Marines! JOE LYON JR. Boise, Idaho

Turks in the Wings

Sirs: In a recent letter I received from my people in the Island of Cyprus, whose population is composed of Greeks and Turks, I am informed that the Turks are very jealous over the publicity that the Greeks are getting in Albania, and that they are dying to get into the war so that they can take the spotlight away from the Greeks. Like a ham actor whose greatest thrill in life is to be on the stage, even if he is there just to hold a spear, the Turkish soldier is anxiously waiting for that day to act. If you think that the Greek soldier is a fighter, wait until you see the Turk. PAUL RALLI Las Vegas, Nev.

How Balderas Died

Sirs: . . . TIME, justly proud of accuracy in all things, must expect to be called for its slips. Such a slip is TIME'S account of the death of Alberto Balderas in the Mexico City ring (TIME, Jan. 13). TIME states that Balderas, after having scored a triumph with his first bull, was killed by his second. . . . When Sidney Franklin was in town last week I asked him about this. Franklin had left Mexico City before the accident, but he had a letter from a trusted aficionado there, and this man's account ran as follows: Balderas had indeed had a great success with his first bull. . . . But before he killed, he was caught and tossed. He was not gored, but the horn had ripped one leg of his breeches. He was thus behind the barrera, having the tear mended, when the next bull, drawn by one of the two other matadors, came out. . . . Balderas decided to go out and take the bull over. ... He need not have done this, and that is the essential tragedy of his death. At this point, someone came up to tell him that the bull's eyesight had evidently undergone a change during the previous few minutes, probably from congestion of blood, and that he was now demonstrating tendencies he had not shown before; possibly he was favoring one side, or refusing to follow the cloth. But Balderas, full of confidence and probably still in a state of exaltation from his previous triumph, declined the advice and went out to take over. Since he was senior man in the ring, this was his privilege. He was caught almost at once, and the bull held him in the air for seconds, passing him very rapidly from one horn to the other before throwing him to the ground. By this time, someone had come up to distract the animal, and Balderas got to his feet, walked to the fence and collapsed. He was taken to the infirmary, where he died 50 minutes later after a fruitless injection of adrenalin and two blood transfusions. That was how death, as it must to all men, came to Alberto Balderas. KEN W. PURDY New York City

Jones v. Smoke

Sirs: In TIME, Jan. 13, you state: "Now he cannot abide smoke near him. 'No Smoking' signs plaster all the offices near him." Do you expect us to believe that a superb poker player like Jesse Jones would play only with nonsmokers? H. SPECT Oakland, Calif.

> Federal Loan Agency's Emperor Jones loves poker more than he hates tobacco smoke. The card table is one place he cannot avoid smoke, so there he just good-naturedly puts up with it.--ED.

Cute Little Gadgets

Sirs: Those .75-mm. field guns Mr. Stimson released to the British must be cute little gadgets. What would one use for ammunition? H. D. RHODES Chicago, Ill.

> TIME put a decimal point where none belongs. If an actual .75-mm. gun were a made, it could fire nothing thicker than a sewing needle--ED.

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