A LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

Printing TIME on the Persian Gulf for the American soldiers in Iran is farthest East in more ways than one. The only press in the place is an ancient, hand-fed flatbed that had to be fanned for two hours to cool it off after an hour's run. And when you read this report on how our first issue got printed , I think you will understand why nobody else has ever before tried to bring out a newsmagazine in the land of the houri.

"As soon as the plane arrived with the mats of TIME'S August 16 issue [mats are papiermache molds of type and illustrations] I carried the package down to the largest print shop and with due ceremony informed the director of the honor that was about to befall him: permission to print the first issue of TIME'S first Asiatic edition.

"He took one horrified look at the stack of 36 mats and gave the usual Persian answer : 'Impossible!' Then we settled down to negotiations, which involved convincing him that he did have enough metal to cast the pages from the mats (or could get it)--that the casting would not take fifteen days (if he could get the lead out of the pants of the zombie who did the work)--that the only paper available would be usable if not ideal--that we would somehow manage to get him enough gelatin for the press roll ers--and that we would not complain too bitterly if his inferior ink smudged some of the illustrations.

"This took a whole day--and our printer finally did win one point: that this was the biggest job of its kind in all the history of Iran."

In the end, the first issue of TIME-in- Iran was printed in seven days by Persian and Armenian workmen bossed by a Turk interpreter on Indian and British papers run off from a German-made press--for distribution to American boys who are getting vital Lend-Lease war goods through to Russia. So I guess this new edition is a truly "international" magazine if ever there was one.

Every week now thousands of copies are being rushed by plane, train and truck to the Army's Post Exchanges throughout Iran--to speed TIME'S news to our troops there by as much as five weeks.

"TIME is helping to bring all the news of all the world to the Persian Gulf Service Command while it is still news," cheered the U.S. Army Dispatch, weekly newspaper of the P.G.S.C. And Area Commander Donald H. Connolly said: "TIME will give our troops the broadest possible coverage of all phases of American life."

TIME-in-Persia brings to six the number of TIME editions now printed thousands of miles away. The others are the three print ings in Latin America --Mexico City, Buenos Aires (temporarily suspend ed) and Bogota--one in Australia for General MacArthur's men--and one in Honolulu for Hawaii and our is land outposts in the Mid-Pacific.

'Still another far-off printing of TIME for still another A.E.F. is scheduled to begin almost any day now--so some week soon I will probably have another story to tell you about how the native contractors said it couldn't be done--and then went ahead and did it.

Cordially,

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