Of Flies & Men in China (Cont'd)

Sir:

Henry Willcox, in your Letters column of Jan 5, writes on his return to America from the Communist Peace Conference in Peking, Red China that that country "has eliminated inflation, famine, floods and flies " He says all American citizens should be encouraged to witness these phenomena.

In this benighted country of ours, where we still have inflation, floods and flies, if not famine, the question arises as to why Mr. Willcox did not stay in Red China where everything is so lovely? Could it be that he returns as a propagandist? And what about registration as a foreign agent?

ALFRED KOHLBERG

New York City

Sir:

. . . Maybe "all American citizens should be encouraged to witness these phenomena " But who is discouraging them? It may be that the Communist government is afraid that they will also witness many other phenomena.

A. J. PASCHANG

Bishop of Kongmoon

Hong Kong

Sir:

I love your correspondents, especially Mr. Willcox. Ever since the Dean of Canterbury returned from China with a story of how the U.S. was using infected grasshoppers as a diabolical weapon in germ warfare against the "People's Republic," I thought the limit of human credulity had been reached (Remember? The village kids picked up the plague-bearing insects with chopsticks!) At least Mr. Willcox clears up one mystery, i.e., why grasshoppers ? Of course! Mao had killed the flies. Might the undersigned . . . ask why Mao did not kill the grasshoppers too? Also just how did Mao put an end to centuries of Chinese floods. With chopsticks, again? Come now, Willcox!

LUTHER A. BRILL

Montclair, NJ.

Sir:

Henry Willcox asks us to witness a yearly 15% rise in the standard of living in a country of 400 million people with the output of few large industries available to them and with the minimum of communication facilities to distribute these products. He has the temerity to suggest that flies have been eliminated from areas where there is no modern hygiene or sanitation . . .

"For the first time in history, half a billion people are bursting with confidence and hope." I wonder if in the course of his study of the many centuries of Chinese history, Willcox came across the name of Sun Vat-sen? Might one also enquire how long it took to interview half a billion people?

J. K. HAMPSHIRE

Picton, Ontario

Sir:

. . . Let us admit that Mao Tse-tung has indeed succeeded in eliminating inflation, and even famine, if he has already liquidated enough millions of people to achieve that. But floods! Does the dreaded Chairman Mao have the magical power to alter, mind you in three years, the course of the Hwang-ho, the Yangtze, and various other rivers which have been the sole cause of this natural disaster? . . .

The Chinese now are, according to Mr Willcox, "eager for peace, eager for friendship and trade with our country." When were they not? . . .

W. R. CHU

Oakland, Calif.

Sir:

. . . "The standard of living is rising 15% each year" in China for the Communists alone, if that statement is true. He could only have accepted what the Communist propagandists had told him; otherwise how could he have known the living conditions of the people in that vast land, not only for the present, but also for the past years, in order to make comparisons? We know only top well that the standard of living of the middle and upper classes has dropped considerably, while most of the poor still live as meagerly as ever, if indeed not worse.

S. T. TUNG

Berkeley, Calif.

Required Reading

Sir:

TIME'S Senior Editor John Osborne deserves the praise of all of us serving in the front line commands in Korea for his article "The Fighting, Waiting Eighth Army" [TIME, Dec. 22]. He has so aptly caught the pulsebeat of thought of all U.S. Army personnel fighting a "forgotten war."

Osborne's article should be required reading for all American citizens. . .

KENNETH WILSON

2nd Lieutenant, M.S.C.

c/o Postmaster, San Francisco

Adman's Lexicon

Sir:

Add "Parker" to your lexicon of American words whose connotation has given rise to new words in far-away lands [TIME, Dec. 22] A close friend relates that in the Malayan Peninsula, products of the U.S. pen firm have been on the scene so long that the word "Parker" has appeared in their dictionary for many years. It is denned thus: "Of unquestionable quality--the best."

LEIGH ATKINSON

Chicago

Sir:

. . . The officers and men of the Royal Netherlands Navy use "Cola Poes" (rhymes with puss) to denote a beautiful woman. Straight translation: "Cola kitten". . .

J. J. LOWEY-BALL

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Sir:

. . . Another evidence of the power of advertising is offered here in Israel by the word "Kvack-err," standing for breakfast cereals. This is how the word "Quaker" (for Quaker Oats) is being pronounced locally.

EMILIO TRAUBNER

Tel Aviv, Israel

Woman of the Year (Cont'd)

Sir:

. . . Elizabeth II is undoubtedly a lovely young lady (and Queen) full of "the significance of a fresh young blossom on roots that had weathered many a season of wintry doubt" (oh brother!), BUT--either Dwight Eisenhower, Captain Carlsen, Konrad Adenauer or Eleanor Roosevelt had a more, much more, substantial claim to the title.

FRANK G. RIVERA

Los Angeles

Sir:

Your choice was in consummate taste, and echoes what the world is yearning for.

Her very name suggests more spacious, wise and tranquil times . . . reminding us of ancient glories and serving as a bond between decent peoples in this Age of Brass.

RICHARD WINCOR

New York City

Sir:

. . . Your selection is preposterous . . . The only conclusion I can come to is that you want to boost up circulation in England . . . We know it as a "boring and exacting job" (as Reader Oliver states in your Dec. 8 Letters column), but the pay etc. is good and very few inhabitants of this planet would turn it down . . .

FINBARR M. SLATTERY

Dublin, Ireland

Sir:

. . . As just another female taxpayer, I've had my fill of your glorification of foreign parasites.

MABLE LONGSLEY

Chicago

Sir:

. . . I felt that a deeper significance was lost in your great and sincere sentiment. For there are overtones of sadness in this British idealization of their lovely Queen . . . True enough, the British people have always regarded their rulers as subconscious symbols of their glory. But behind the smiles of courage and the brave, half-filled stomachs, there must be a gnawing despair in many a British heart that the light and glory of empire are growing dim . . .

P. J. CLINTON

New York City

Sir:

From an American in England, an appreciation of TIME'S choice . . . Not many months ago I came here with, among other things, a slightly hostile curiosity about the meaning . . . of this business of royalty . . . Not without surprise, I found in myself the lame affectionate respect for the Queen and . . at the same time . . . I found an understanding of the English, perhaps the British, and what they value and will work for.

TIME has, directly and implicitly, illuminated these desires and characteristics for its worldwide readers. Thanks, then, for an effective gesture toward that most necessary condition: Anglo-American understanding.

PAGE H. PORTER

Heswall, Cheshire, England

On the Grill

Sir:

No TIMEnthusiast, I nevertheless salute your Jan. 12 coverage of the House Judiciary Committee's grilling of that eminent fuzzy-duddy, Dean Gooderham Acheson. His weasel-words on this occasion were never more self-damning. Your final sentence--"Never had the case for public investigation of Communist infiltration [into U.N. and the U.S. Government] been more eloquently proved"--should have been printed in 30-point, or at least italicized. And Acheson could paste it in his Homburg . . .

RAY BROCK

New York City

Flivver Alphabet

Sir:

In your Jan. 5 issue, you mention that the late Edsel Ford's letter was dated 1901, which was "two years before the first Model T went into production." I am sure you will want to keep the records straight, as the Model T was not manufactured until 1908.

The first Model A was manufactured in 1903, followed by other 2, 4 and 6-cylinder cars known as the Models D, F, N, S, R and K. The Model K was a big 6-cylinder job with two-speed planetary transmission, and sold for $2,750, which was then about $2,000 higher than . . . the little single-cylinder Cadillac . . .

FLOYD CLYMER

Los Angeles

Antisnob Snob?

Sir:

. . . On the basis of his contribution to your Jan. 5 Letters column, I nominate Mr. Malcolm L. Storm of Toronto as the smuggest man of all time.

J. D. REEVES San Francisco

Sir:

Has Mr. Storm, so frightfully smug in his analysis of those who write to TIME'S Letters-to-the-Editor column, heard of the antisnob snob? . .

CHESTER V. DOLAN

New York City

Sir:

Re Mr. Malcolm L. Storm: I have but one comment to make: Et tu, Brute.

THOMAS RIGHTMYER

Glyndon, Md.

Sailor to Senator

Sir:

. . . Senator McCarran . . . grossly underestimates the Communist masterminds in Moscow if he believes they are using foreign seamen with a few days' shore leave to spread the Red doctrine . . . For seven years, during war and peace, I traveled the world over as a seaman, and at no time did any country demand an individual visa--not even a passport, of an American seaman. Never, in the years I went to sea, was I subjected to such an investigation as McCarran has instituted. This goes for free countries as well as such totalitarian countries as Yugoslavia.

How scared can Pat get?

JAMES K. STAUFFER

St. Louis

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