Of Flies & Men in China

Sir: Re our visit to China, noted in your Dec. 8 issue: we would like to add that we made no false statements and violated no law in obtaining and using our passports. We wish every American could see what we saw. In three years the new China has eliminated inflation, famine, floods, and flies--yes, flies! The standard of living is rising 15% each year. For the first time in history, half a billion people are bursting with confidence and hope. They are eager for peace, eager for friendship and trade with our country. Should not all American citizens be encouraged to witness these phenomena?

HENRY WILLCOX New York City

Light on Bolivia

Sir:

. . . For trying to lift Bolivia's political picture out of the darkness and showing it as clearly as possible to the public, my heartiest congratulations to TIME, Dec. 15.

PETER SIMON Levittown, N.Y.

Sir:

... I must disagree emphatically with your characterization of the President of Bolivia as a dictator. The late Gualberto Villaroel was not pro-Nazi; in fact, he was one of the few men in all Latin America who clung consistently to the view that the democracies would win World War II. Nor can I subscribe to the implication that Juan Lechin, the Minister of Mines, is a radical . . . Nevertheless, the entire story shows clearly that the Bolivian situation was approached objectively, and that an attempt was made to get at the facts and to appraise them without bias. Consequently, I cannot object to some of your fundamental conclusions . . .

VICTOR ANDRADE Ambassador of Bolivia Washington, D.C.

Sir:

... If the average native on the altiplano were to cook his meals over a cow-dung fire, the cow dung would have to be imported from the Argentine pampas. Cows are pretty scarce in Bolivia as a whole, and virtually nonexistent on the altiplano. The natives there use llama dung for fuel.

A.C.N. DE VOOGD Vancouver, B.C. P:TIME'S apologies to the hardy and resourceful llama.--ED.

Millinery Division

Sir:

I am properly grateful for the space you gave my talk before the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association [TIME, Dec. 1], but am chagrined at the picture you ran of me in that hat ... Can't you let a lady live down her past mistakes? . . . Surely you must have one more up-to-date and slightly less ridiculous? . . .

WILLIE SNOW ETHRIDGE Prospect, Ky.

Cf For a more up-to-date model, see cut.--ED.

How Mr. Krock Decides

SIR:

YOUR DEC. 22 TRIBUTE TO JAMES A. HAGERTY WAS DESERVED AND EVEN UNDERSTATED HIS PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL MERITS. BUT AS ONE OF THE SOURCES OF THE ARTICLE, I AM PUZZLED BY THE STATEMENT THAT I DO NOT WRITE MY ELECTION NIGHT STORIES FOR THE

NEW YORK "TIMES" NAMING THE WINNER UNTIL I ASK MR. HAGERTY "WHEN WILL YOU CALL IT?" THIS IS WHOLLY TRUE WITH RESPECT TO THE DECISIONS OF THE VOTERS OF NEW YORK CITY AND STATE. BUT I DEPEND ON MY OWN JUDGMENT TO DETERMINE WHO IS THE NATIONAL WINNER AND WHEN TO SAY SO ...

ARTHUR KROCK

WASHINGTON, D.C.

American Memorial Chapel

SIR:

CENTRAL FEATURE OF THE PICTURE IN YOUR DEC. 15 "LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER" is ST.

PAUL'S NEW BALDACHIN AND HIGH ALTAR . . . WHICH STANDS IN FRONT OF SITE OF JESUS CHAPEL. YOUR CAPTION, "MODEL OF AMERICAN MEMORIAL CHAPEL," IS MISLEADING. . .

W. D. F. HUGHES PORTLAND, ME.

P:TIME'S caption was taken from the London Times' special book, Britain's Homage to 28,000 American Dead. Said a spokesman for the Times: "The cap tion should have made clear that the American Memorial Chapel is directly behind the new high altar." For a view from within the Chapel, see cut. -- ED.

Sir:

. . . Britain's Homage to 28,000 American Dead stirred old memories of a heart-warming acquaintance with a Liverpool family whose hospitality and friendship made 1944 a year which I now look back to with singular pleasure . . . There were three children in this family . . . they probably have grown up now and forget our many recitations of Peter Rabbit's excursions to the garden of Mr. McGregor . . . However, "Uncle Chips" remembers . . .

HARROLD S. SHIPPS JR. 2nd lieutenant, U.S.A.F. Sumter, S.C.

The Frightfully Smug?

Sir:

Every week I read your "Letters-to-the Editor" column. No matter who they are, or for whom they are, or whom they are against, the writers of these letters have one thing in common; all of them are frightfully smug.

MALCOLM L. STORM Toronto, Ont.

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