An American Foreign Legion
Sir:
If large numbers of troops under the American flag ... are going to be required in the present crisis, I for one would be very pleased to see U.S. Army recruiting offices opened for business in any or all the European countries which would allow such a proceeding. . . .
I have no doubt that eligible men of the right ages would, lured by U.S. Army pay and food, flock to such recruiting offices in such numbers that we would have an army of several millions under our flag in Europe in a month or two, as a sort of American Foreign Legion abroad. . . .
PAUL ESTLE
Philadelphia, Pa.
Nova Politika
Sir:
The name of the Czech newspaper Svobodne Slovo, now aptly retitled Nova Politika, does not mean "Free World" [TIME, March 8], but "Free Word." It is because the "Free Word" has ceased to exist in my country, not only as a newspaper but mainly as a means of expression, that I have resigned my position of Czechoslovak consul in New York City.
NICHOLAS V. MARA
Elmhurst, N.Y.
Offshore Freeze
Sir:
The wind may have been blowing at 46 m.p.h. The water may have been rough. They may have anchored offshore (which is recommended procedure; it's not much fun anchoring on the shore). . . .
But really now, did TIME [March 15] have to freeze the salt in this part-time sailor's heart by calling Tonga, my 60-ft. oceangoing ketch in which Gregory Peck and Leslie Charteris were holidaying, a "cruiser"?
ROBERT TROUT
New York City
P: TIME'S People editor is a ketch-as-ketch-can sailor.--ED.
Notice Taken
Sir:
Occasionally one reads an article which is so very striking for the new facts it presents, or for the clarity of presentation of past events, that it causes one to sit up and take notice. Such an article was your lucid "The Battlefields of Peace" [TIME, March 8]. ...
It is for articles such as this that a person should read your magazine. You may look to me as a lifelong subscriber. . . .
JOHN W. TURKOVICH
Detroit, Mich.
Pari-Mutuel
Sir:
TIME is wonderful! First it was [a picture of] "Miss Hush," and now "The Walking Man" [TIME, March 8]. How about a photograph of the horse destined to win the Kentucky Derby this year? WM. BAIRD JR. T
oronto, Ont.
P: Could be (see cut).--ED.
Unmystical Metaphor
Sir:
I ... read with great interest the very able article on my father, Mahatma Gandhi [TIME, Feb. 9]. It was of the high standard you have led people to expect. ... I profoundly agree with the thesis of the writer that there was something more human and greater than "mysticism" in Gandhi. But the "notably unmystical metaphor" which you attribute to him--"If we Indians could only spit in unison, we would form a puddle big enough to drown 300,000 Englishmen"--was never uttered by him.
I know that the metaphor was used by some other public speaker during the great agitation led by my father round about 1920. His only connection with the metaphor was to deplore the use of such language even to express a truth. On a pure point of fact it is necessary to emphasize that Gandhi was one of the most refined persons in the world, refined in his scanty dress, in his speech, in his manners. There are many small and fine points about Gandhi on which I would always have something or other to say, if only by way of information, even if I lived for ages.
DEVADAS GANDHI
New Delhi, India
Little King
Sir:
If the King-sized television screen shown in TIME, March 15, is 18 by 22 ft., I'll eat it
Keep us posted on TV. We like it. ...
CARL S. THOMAS
Annapolis, Md.
Sir; . . TIME'S radio editor must have had one too many in that bar. . . .
H. E. STEVENS
Los Angeles, Calif.
P: His foot slipped. The Prince-sized screen pictured was 8 by 10 ft.--ED.
Faith, Hope & Beauty
Sir: Amid all the angular, potbellied, emaciated,
fat, cynical, complacent and evil-browed rulers, politicians, moguls, authors and social climbers which your columns must perforce exhibit, the charming figure of Princess Elizabeth [TIME, March 15] stands out like the morning star of human faith and hope. Alive, intelligent, eager, energetic, she is the quintessence of beauty ... a blessing to mankind. . . . A. W. SINCLAIR
Madison, Tenn.
MacArthur for President?
Sir:
Seventeen college groups affiliated in Eastern Veterans Against MacArthur wish to emphasize their own rational arguments against the candidacy of Douglas MacArthur for President:
1) His absence from the U.S. during the past twelve years gives him no intimate understanding of American problems.
2) His aloofness from the people is exemplified by his dealings with his troops. . . .
3) His attitude toward basic American principles--notably freedom of the press--leaves the American veteran bitter. It is noteworthy that press censorship in Japan has been used mainly to forward MacArthur's political career, not the interests of any so-called security.
4) We have avoided condemning, MacArthur just as a military man; it is the type of military leader he has proved to be that we oppose. Other American generals have held high command without being autocratic, self-willed and unwilling to share responsibilities with others.
5) We are against MacArthur's collection of fellow travelers: William Randolph Hearst, Colonel McCormick, Mayor Curley, et al. ...
JOHN W. CARR III
M.I.T.
JOHN S. KORNFELD
Harvard
CLAUDE SOLANA Boston University (CoChairmen, Eastern VAM) Cambridge, Mass.
Sir:
Well might "MacArthur wade ashore at San Simeon when he comes home," or at any other point on our shores; does Editor Edward T. Leech of the Pittsburgh Press [TIME, March 15] consider the Hearstian kiss of death any more lethal than the Pendergast kiss of death ?
Mac Is The Man, and he comes home to us as a man whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, a man who has striven valiantly in the field of battle, and succeeded nobly against the greatest odds in history. Editor Leech would do well to meet him at the shore and grasp his hand. . . .
HUGH MORRISON
New London, Conn.
Froggy Footnote
Sir:
Your Du Maurier editor seems to have booted one in his footnote when he speaks of Trilby as "frog-voiced" [TIME, March 1]. According to Author du Maurier, who certainly knew, Trilby had one of the finest singing voices of her time. Svengali's influence enabled her to place her notes as the hypnotist directed, thus temporarily correcting the fact that she was tone-deaf.
Some frog-voiced critics . . . snoot Trilby because the author illustrated the book and because it was so unforgivably popular. A pox on them all. Trilby ranks with David Copperfield, Vanity Fair, Huckleberry Finn. . . .
HORATIO WINSLOW Altadena, Calif.
Freud v. Marx
Sir:
In TIME, March 15, you quote Professor C.E.M. Joad as jeering at the idea that "a world of adequately psychoanalyzed Communists would be the millennium." As a member of the [BBC's] Brains Trust, he should know that "psychoanalyzed Communists" is a contradiction in terms. No one who had been "adequately psychoanalyzed" could possibly accept a system of infallible dogma like Marxism, and I know from experience that a confirmed Communist is inaccessible to psychoanalysis. Of all thinkers of our generation, Freud is Marx's most effective adversary.
LAWRENCE GOULD
New York City
Queen for a Day
Sir:
THE "QUEEN FOR A DAY" PROGRAM ORIGINATED FROM EARL CARROLL THEATER, HOLLYWOOD, NOT FROM BROADCASTING STUDIO [TIME, MARCH 15]. FOR ONCE I AM RIGHT.
TOKYO ROSE
Tokyo, Japan
P: Every rose has its day.--ED.
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