Acheson's Argument
Sir:
I fail to follow Mr. Acheson's line of argument that it was expedient, at Yalta, to give Russia a legal claim to a finger so as to prevent her from taking a hand. How was it possible for Roosevelt and Churchill to furnish Stalin with a "legal claim" to territories over which neither America nor Britain had any jurisdiction whatsoever?
Could Churchill and Chiang Kaishek, in a similar manner, have armed Stalin with a legal claim to the Alaskan port of Nome and control of the Seward-Fairbanks railway? . . .
G. C. HALL
London, England
Blind to Reality
Sir:
The U.S. Government deserves a hearty salute from all loyal citizens of non-Communist China ... for its courageous stand against the treachery and encroachment of international Communism . . .
From what has taken place in China, I think Stalin has accomplished what the Japanese in their 21 demands in 1915 failed to do. The Chinese students, as a result of these demands, arose as a man in opposition. Now, a great number of students are in favor of Stalin's misdeeds. It seems that their sense of reasoning has become distorted and their eyes blind to reality . . .
T. PAICHUNG Bogor, Java
The State of Yale
Sir:
It was indeed most encouraging to read your June 11 cover story about President Griswold and the return of Yale to the teaching of philosophy and the humanities as the basis for true education.
We who have been taught in Jesuit colleges, which for 400 years have stressed religion, philosophy and the humanities under the famous Ratio Studiorum . . . may now look forward to the more mature, sound and altruistic leadership which the "oldfashioned" education will unquestionably produce . . .
Only by such a countrywide reawakening . . . will our "gadget" civilization become a civilization which will enkindle the minds, hearts and souls of the Western world with Christian optimism, rather than this continued wallowing in secular pragmatism.
STEPHEN E. HART Randolph, Mass.
Sir:
"The proper function of the university, wrote Newman, is 'teaching universal knowledge.' " Your readers will agree that TIME has earned a niche in that category.
HARRY W. OLNEY Washington, D.C.
Sir:
... As a secondary teacher, I take umbrage at Mr. Griswold's swipe at me and my fellows. He regards us as weak links in the educational chain, and wishes to teach us our subject matter. Humph! . . . We don't teach a few hours a week. We are in there every day all day long. Our nights are spent in preparing our classes and correcting papers (a practice that could be followed by most professors I know) . . .
The job we do would be better were we not shackled and hamstrung by foolish requirements that are foisted on us by the "educators" in the colleges. When the colleges have more sensible entrance requirements, they might not have to look down their snide noses at their poor relatives in the secondary schools.
JOHN R. WILSON Albany
Holmes's Last [Upper] Case?
Sir-Sherlock Holmes lived at "221b" Baker Street [TIME, June 11]? NEVER, NEVER, NEVER!
Any devotee of Holmesiana would be glad to remind you that "B" is always set in (small) capitals, thus: 221 B. See Chapter II of A Study In Scarlet ...
SYLVIA KRAMER Oakland, Calif.
Rocks, Shoals & Pusillanimity
Sir:
As one entitled to wear the square-knot insignia indicating enlistment as an Apprentice Boy (rate abolished in 1904), I have viewed with alarm the many changes which are being inaugurated in naval customs . . .
With fortitude I witnessed the shortening of streamers on flat hats and even the elimination of the grommet which made it a flat hat; the reefing in of bell bottom trousers, issuance of pajamas to sleep in, substitution of "right rudder" for "port your helm," substitution of "hostess houses" for the places we used to frequent ashore, etc.
Now, however, comes the final indignity. They're going to change the euphonious and mouth-filling "pusillanimously cries for quarter" as it has stood in the Articles for the Government of the Navy (better known as "Rocks and Shoals") since the days of John Paul Jones, to the puny, emasculated, bilgewater phrase, "guilty of cowardly conduct" [TIME, June 11]. By Gad, Sir! That's going too far ...
CHESTER N. WHITE Oakland, Calif.
Boston's Roman Holiday
Sir:
After reading your June 11 story about the Boston boy who was about to jump out of the hotel window, I, too, am horrified, and like the Navy commander, it almost makes me hate the people who screamed . . .
To me this terrible story presents a comparison with the state of the world today. The boy represents the despair and disillusionment so many feel in these times; the rabble below are the hell-bent millions who care for nothing but themselves and their pleasure; and the waitress and priest, and others who tried to save him, represent the feeble yet victorious forces of Christian principles. . . .
(MRS.) JANE W. BECKLEY Baltimore
Sir:
. . . For those people who encouraged Thomas to jump : . . the city of Boston should install 200-ft. flagpoles in Fenway Park and force condemned criminals to jump to their deaths . . .
MAURICE A. O'SULLIVAN
Dublin, Ireland
Sir:
. . . Here, in this ghoulish little scene, is the essential horror story of our time . . . This Roman holiday in staid old Boston proves again how thin is the veneer of our Christianity . . .
EDWARD T. MCNAMARA Danbury, Conn.
Intellectual Casualty?
Sir:
Leafing through the Latin American edition of TIME, June 11, I was surprised--but not astounded--at the story on ex-Navy Lieut, (jg) William Evans, who got fired from the Navy for his anti-Administration letter to Alfred Kohlberg.
As a former classmate of Evans, I consider him an intellectual casualty. He was an avid worker in the recent election campaign of Senator Butler of Maryland, and thoroughly believed the speeches made--a thing no thinking person does of any campaign speech.
It used to be that budding intellectuals like Evans became casualties of the left, and fell for Communist propaganda. Evans is a casualty of the right. Fortunately for him, his cure will be swift if I know my University of Maryland faculty. I can see them gently destroying the hokum he will write in his proposed master's thesis, Truman and Stalin at Potsdam.
GEORGE BEISHLAG
Guayama, Puerto Rico
Footnote to Versailles
Sir:
Your May 28 reference that Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, "onetime Premier of Italy, is the last surviving member of World War I's Versailles Treaty-makers" is incorrect if it is admitted that the Rt. Hon. William Morris ("Billy") Hughes was one of the Treaty-makers.
Mr. Hughes, who was Prime Minister of Australia at the time, represented this country at the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919. Last month he was re-elected to the Commonwealth Parliament, and . . . despite his 87 years, is still extremely active . . .
J. H. HORN
Melbourne, Australia
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