To answer some of the questions subscribers all over the world have been asking about how TIME gathers, verifies, writes and distributes its news.

"The little Cub plane with Lieut. Colonel Thomas W. Casey as observer strayed a bit and came down on a strange beach.

"Immediately several hundred Filipinos streamed out of a nearby village, jabbering excitedly and touching the Cub with awe; they hadn't seen more than three white men in a dozen years -- they'd never seen a plane on the

"Presently a guerrilla chief appeared. He understood English and the first thing he noticed was a copy of TIME'S Pony Edition sticking from Casey's pocket. 'TIME Magazine' he yelled. 'Now we know something!'

"For half an hour the guerrilla chief, standing on a rise of ground, read in a ringing voice to the 200-odd-entranced natives all the war news he could find and translate. Filipino eyes glistened; they listened intently to every word.

"The payoff was that Casey hadn't finished that issue yet. It took all his tact to get the magazine back before he could take off again."

One of the pleasant things about working at TIME these days is to read so many friendly letters that come to us from servicemen and civilians in strange places all over the globe--and perhaps this week you might like to look over our shoulder at some random pieces from TIME'S overseas mail bag--like the letter you have just read from Captain Jack Tucker of the U.S. Infantry.

For example: from Chungking Mr. S. S. Luo of the Chienchwan Coal Mining Co. Ltd. writes that for more than a year now he has taken one full day each week to travel 36 difficult miles on an "overworked, overcrowded bus" to pay 150 Chinese dollars for a single copy of TIME ("You may be astounded to know that not a few others have regularly paid and are still paying this fabulous and fantastic price"). And from Kityang in South China the Reverend Carl M. Capen writes that when he goes into the back country these days all he takes with him are "the necessities of life--a change of clothing, a Chinese New Testament, a shaving set, toothbrush--and several copies of TIME'S Pony Edition."

From the Chile-Argentine border Cameraman Bill Larsen of R.K.O.-Pathe News writes that he reads TIME'S Air Express Edition on burro-back at 4,000 meters (13,000 feet to me) up in the Andes--see cut.

A Lieutenant on convoy duty in the Mediterranean tells us that a TIME article on radar and sound is "so good we are using it for instruction purposes," and adds that he "can't understand how TIME got such valuable information." ... A Major in the Marine Corps V-mails hand-painted greetings to TIME'S Pacific Pony Edition "for making this war i) bearable 2) understandable for those of us out here" on Saipan--see cut. . . . "You will be interested to hear that TIME was flown in and distributed to the Marines fighting on Iwo Jima the first day transport planes landed on the island. TIME brought many fellows 'home' if only for a short time," writes Lieutenant Philip Schneider of The Leatherneck's Pacific staff. . . .

And when Admiral Nimitz flew in to Okinawa he brought a copy of TIME in his pocket for Lieut. General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr.

Cordially,

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