Iran's Case

Sir:

... I desire to see the already existing friendly relations between Iran and England grow more & more every day, and I have always attempted to preserve these good relations. However, to my great regret, the lust and greed of those individuals who have been beneficiaries of the former Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. have complicated the situation so much that the Iranian Government has not been able, so far, to make any small sales transaction on its oil. They have the wrong notion in their minds that by bringing economic pressure upon Iran, they can make us submit to being longer exploited by them . . .

As you know, the Iranians aim at attaining their liberty ... I am confident that you will continue in your good course, as before, in spreading reliable information about our country in the U.S. ... It is our hope that the American people shall come to realize more than ever before the objectives of the Iranian people ... It is here that we depend upon your support and that of the American people . . .

Please accept my wishes and prayers for your magazine, which is a great factor as far as its services are concerned to world peace.

DR. MOHAMMED MOSSADEGH

Teheran, Iran

Mrs. R.

Sir:

In a world that has long been in too much of a hurry to recognize genuine kindness, humble dignity and courageous truthfulness, Eleanor Roosevelt stands out like a stoplight. Born into a halcyon world, fortified against poverty and bitterness by wealth, social position and a fortunate marriage, the memories of her "shy, ugly duckling years" have no doubt helped her to possess the wonderful empathy she has for peoples everywhere ... I, for one, who have never met or even seen "Mrs. R.," love her dearly; how must others, who have been touched by her, feel?

Your April 7 cover story on her is, admirably, written along the same lines that make up her personality and character--slightly wistful, clearly understood, beautiful and earnest in their simplicity. . . .

VIRGINIA ROSE

New York City

Sir:

On behalf of those Americans for whom the "shrill upper register" voice of Eleanor Roosevelt echoes the highest ideals of this deranged era, I want to extend my sincere thanks to TIME--a magazine I generally read with apprehensive glance and frequent shudder . . .

SHEPHERD I. RAIMI

Ithaca, N.Y.

Sir:

You give the impression that Mrs. Roosevelt's affiliation and sympathy for left-wing characters and causes was something that she played with in her middle-aged childhood but which she has cast aside since she has donned her grandmotherly Mother Hubbard. The record shows otherwise . . . She has done her best to ridicule Chambers, Bentley and Budenz. To this day she has never publicly repudiated Hiss . . .

TERRENCE O'TOOLE

Forest Hills, N.Y.

There'll Always Be an Aspirate

Sir:

Re your March 31 story on the London motorbuses visiting the U.S. with their "cockney" drivers: I see that you have fallen for the pernicious idea that all London workingmen drop their aitches . . . Unfortunately you are not alone in this habit. Our own BBC always finds it necessary ... to put "local" and plebeian language in the mouths of policemen, bus and taxi drivers, artisans and the "working class" in general. If TIME was a genuine student of the London scene, it would be aware that "cockney" idiom is almost extinct. This stigma of an elementary education has been eradicated to a great extent by a progressive educational system and improved social conditions . . .

F. B. DAVIS

Streatham, London, England

Marriage (Ugh!) for (Gulp) All?

Sir:

I wonder if Al Capp realizes that his recent action [in marrying Li'l Abner to Daisy Mae] may force millions of red-blooded American boys to get married ? For years, Li'l Abner has been the bachelor's ideal. Now that he is married, only one course of action is open to us. Get hitched. Couldn't there be just one more miracle?

BILL ANDERSON

Louisville, Ky.

Sir:

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sympathy at the passing of a great American satirist As the last bastion in defense of the vanishing American man, he, almost alone, valiantly bore the struggle on his capable shoulders. With little help but a great deal of sympathy from his own species he struck terrible blows at the gods of matrimony, offering a smile of hope to the beleaguered American male. But, as is the inevitable lot of those who would scoff at the goddess Venus, he fell victim to the very thing he fought . . . This great satirist now gambols about his new-found Elysian fields along with the movie moguls and advertisers, caught up in the perfumed product of their own imagination and in the daily propitiating of the Great American Female . . . Those of us left behind can only mourn his memory and look for a new champion to replace the great Al Capp.

JOHN BODNAR

Binghamton, N.Y.

Hell & Hamfat

Sir:

Having been one of those half a million Americans who had the pleasure of viewing Don Juan in Hell, I was pleased to read your excellent March 31 article on Charles Laughton and associates . . .

H. H. COBB JR. Evanston, Ill.

Sir:

Please correct the error made in your Laughton article where you state: ". . . Chautauqua in 1925 quickly and quietly faded away." In my opinion, this worthwhile institution is very much alive today at Chautauqua. Its religious and cultural programs are without parallel. During the season the Chautauqua Symphony programs are broadcast to a nationwide audience. The summer opera maintains highest musical standards. New York University offers extension work there to a host of educators from all parts of the country . . .

NORMAN P. HEWITT

Philadelphia

P:TIME referred to the fade-out of Chautauqua as a nationwide institution, should have made it clear that the original Chautauqua still flourishes.--ED.

Sir:

The derivation of "ham" as applied to "h'amateur" actors in your article on Charles Laughton differs from what I believe to be the correct one. The oldtime minstrels used to apply ham-fat to their faces so that their burnt-cork makeup would be easier to remove. They thus became known as "ham-fatters," the word eventually being shortened to "ham," and used to designate any broad, slapstick performances such as those of the minstrels. Now, of course, it simply means bad acting.

But whatever the derivation, if Mr. Laughton's performances in Don Juan in Hell are hamming, let us have more of it ...

ARTHUR ANDERSON

New York City

P:Such derivations are moot points. But H. L. Mencken in The American Language supports Reader Anderson's theory.--ED.

The Truman Record Sir:

I consider your April 7 tribute to Truman a very fair, unbiased tribute to a man you have so often poked fun at and criticized . . .

It is indeed refreshing to find that TIME can write a kind, unprejudiced evaluation of a man who tried hard, but who simply was not big enough for the job of presidency.

JANICE PECK PATTERSON

Dallas, Pa.

Sir:

In your April 7 editorial on the President's bowing-out speech, you said that Mr. Truman "did not develop the ability to look ahead, to avoid the crises, to build."

. . . Truman has planned ahead perhaps more than any previous President. This he did in foreign affairs, in domestic matters, and in his attempt to reorganize the Government.

What about his initiation of Point Four, NATO, and his support of the Schuman Plan? The Marshall Plan, which you designate as a "healthy Truman reflex" to an emergency, indicates more than a little ability to look ahead . . . The record shows that again & again Truman acted in the interests of the long-range welfare of his country even when it meant obvious political disadvantage to himself . . .

ERNEST LEFEVER

New York City

Sir:

Tweedledum is finally out of it--if we can rely on his Jefferson-Jackson Day speech. If Tweedledee only had enough foresight, he'd be out of it too.

My guess is that it will finally be Kefauver for the Democrats and Eisenhower for the Republicans.

BLAS A. GIBLER

Mexico City, Mexico

J'aime Eek

Sir:

Your March 31 article, "The Minnesota Explosion," is a fine piece of journalism and indeed very gratifying to read. So some of the Minnesotans can't spell Eisenhower correctly? Well, the Parisians don't pronounce it comme il faut. To them, he is "General Eek" and their leading man, too. A good thing for Senator Taft that he doesn't have to worry about support from this metropolis.

URSULA W. SIMA

Paris, France

Womanhood Disgraced?

Sir:

In regard to your March 31 Radio & TV article concerning "big, bosomy, blonde" Dagmar: Don't you think humanity is immoral enough without a national magazine publishing cute little items and sayings of this disgrace to womanhood? Would it be too difficult to replace such copy with something more advantageous to the reader, instead of giving the latest on a girl who has yet to learn the art of dressing properly.

PEGGY GABRINI

MARIAN MILLER

Saint Mary College

Xavier, Kans.

The Priests of the Favelados

Sir:

TIME's reporter on Rio's favelas [TIME, March 31] missed an interesting sidelight for U.S. readers. If he ... visited "the human anthills," he must have passed St. Francis Friary . . . where live the U.S. Conventual Franciscans whose parish includes these notorious shantytowns. Two of these priests had been working singlehandedly among the favelados long before Dr. Guilherme Ribeiro Romano appeared on the scene . . . Helped by folks back home, these young Franciscans built and have maintained medical clinics and social centers, schools and chapels on Kerosene, Escondidinho and Sao Carlos Hills. [One] . . . piped water up the hill ... To get ... permission to tap the city water-main below ... he had to pull more strings than a quartet of puppeteers.

These priests, known and beloved among the thousands of favelados, must gratefully welcome Dr. Romano, eleventh-hour hero though he be! ...

(V.REV.) SEBASTIAN WEBER

O.F.M. Conv.

Immaculate Conception Province

Syracuse, N.Y.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.