Revolt in Hungary

SIR:

WE STAND AGHAST AT THE FAILURE OF U.N. TO ACT IMMEDIATELY TO SAVE THE HUNGARIAN PEOPLE FROM SOVIET REPRISALS. THE EVENTS IN HUNGARY HAVE SHATTERED ALL COMMUNIST INFLUENCE IN EUROPE. FIRM INITIATIVE BY THE U.S. CAN STRENGTHEN DEMOCRATIC FORCES EVERYWHERE. WE HAVE CABLED PRESIDENT EISENHOWER A MESSAGE URGING HIM TO SPEAK OUT, TO USE THIS MORAL AUTHORITY TO OBTAIN IMMEDIATE U.N. ACTION, TO BROADCAST IN HIS VOICE A WARNING AGAINST REPRISALS. THE INFLUENTIAL U.S. PRESS MUST URGE SIMILAR ACTIONS BY EISENHOWER. THE HUNGARIAN STUDENTS, WORKERS AND WRITERS HAVE GIVEN THE WORLD A LESSON IN SIMPLE COURAGE THAT SHAMES ALL INACTION. WE HAILED THEIR FIRST TRIUMPH ; WE MUST ACT TO HALT THE SHEDDING OF THEIR BLOOD.

IGNAZIO SILONE

MICHAEL POLANYI

DAVID ROUSSET

DENIS DE ROUGEMONT

RAYMOND ARON

STEPHEN SPENDER

CARLO SCHMID

NICOLAS NABOKOV

PARIS

Sir:

The Hungarian uprising has exposed again the murderous deeds of Communism and the cowardice of the Western democracies. The victims of Communist oppression can now see that they are entirely alone in their desperate struggle for freedom.

J. TOMS Sheridan, Ont.

Sir:

Is it not time that you Americans showed some of the world leadership you so loudly proclaim, and so effectively wriggle out of? The past events in Hungary have shown that all you can do is talk.

W. B. WHITHAM Montreal

Sir:

This is no time for words, but for actions. We Americans acted when the Korean crisis began, but now we just pity the poor Hungarians and listen to their strangled calls for help with a few tears in our eyes. It should not surprise us now, if all the people who have to live under Soviet domination will fall into a lethargy and hopelessness, such as is the case in the U.S.S.R. itself.

MRS. E. C. BURKS

Bonn

Sir:

I've been deluged by two questions ever since I returned from Budapest, where I made arrangements to place medicines, food, clothing and other essentials in the hands of those fighting for their liberty in Hungary: "What can I do?" "Why don't we act?" The International Rescue Committee has, for 20 years, specialized in providing the many kinds of desperately needed help for those who have escaped from totalitarian brutality. We are already helping these brave and desperate souls. We wait in readiness for others who will yet join them. As soon as President Eisenhower announced that the U.S. would open its doors to 5,000 of these refugees, I.R.C. arranged to play a large role in their arrival and resettlement here.

This is not the action some people understandably cry for. But it is life or death for the victims of Hungary's heroic effort to be free. It is our way as private American citizens to identify ourselves with their cause, their plight and their children.

We remain poised to pour vital materials into Hungary. All this takes large sums of money; the needs are great and growing. Your help is needed quickly. Send your cash or checks to International Rescue Committee, 62 West 45th St., New York City.

LEO CHERNE Chairman

International Rescue Committee New York City

Sir:

The U.S. should tell the whole damn East River Debating Society to move to Budapest --then they could personally help the Russians put down the next revolt.

CHARLES S. ALDERSON Chicago

The Middle East

Sir:

How can the Western world answer the Communist doctrine that capitalism leads to war, when such an excellent example for Communist primers is provided by Britain, France and Israel, who resorted to bloodshed to settle a property dispute over Suez? Humanity will not forgive this crime.

W. M. HOLDEN Sacramento

Sir:

Thank you for your unvarnished Nov. 12 account of the conspiracy in the Middle East; it is the first clear light on the story that I have read, since most of the newspapers have taken such an emotional approach that they have somehow managed to convert the three aggressors into victims. In the face of the formidable circumstantial evidence as shown in your timetable of events leading up to the invasion of Egypt, the governments of Israel, England and France must think we are naive indeed to believe their pious statements that there was no collusion, only coincidence.

ELEANOR N. STARKEY New York City

Sir:

America is of the opinion that Britain was wrong to go into Egypt in force. Every time we have relied on you, you have been too late--you were late when we entered a war in 1914, and you were late again in 1939. Your policy has always been to wait till the pot boils over before you raise a hand.

J. E. OUSELEY WALKER Paekakariki, New Zealand

Sir:

Lest the anti-Semitic people in this country think that I am a Jew, I am an oil-stock holding gentile of English descent who is far more interested in seeing true justice done in the Middle East than in the effect the crisis had on the stock market. To see David hit Goliath a pretty crack was worth a ten point drop in my stocks.

DERRICK L. ROSSITER Brooklyn

After the Ballot

Sir:

I am sure that the Democrats' personal attack on Nixon aided the Eisenhower landslide and will indirectly contribute to an improved morality in future American political campaigning.

J. H. PFAU

Worcester, Mass.

Sir:

Eisenhower, in his victory celebration speech, chose to descend to the level of a precinct committeeman exhorting the party faithful to get out and ring doorbells on behalf of the city machine.

GORDON SMITH New York City

Sir:

With all due respect to the many millions of high-grade members of the Democratic Party, it is urgently suggested, and recommended, that that party present to "Give'em-hell" Truman, for his service in correctly predicting that Adlai couldn't win, a leather medal of sufficient size to completely eclipse his mediocre character and personality.

WILL BALL

Logansport, Ind.

The Nixon Story

Sir:

Your Nov. 5 article about Richard Nixon sounded as if his mother wrote the story. It made me sick.

D. R. BAILEY Whittier, Calif.

Sir:

Nixon has been able not merely to withstand, but to hand back, the best Sunday punches which the leftwing, Hiss-loving element in the U.S. has been able to throw. Your article did much to clear up many matters concerning this American.

MAURICE I. CARLSON

Dallas

What Pearson Drew

Sir:

Concerning your Nov. 5 story on Drew Pearson and his reporting on President Eisenhower's health: I think Drew Pearson merits a promotion from columnist to calumnist.

S. GINZBURG Berkeley, Calif.

Sir:

Drew Pearson does not merit the title of s.o.b. He is merely a stinker.

O. G. ERICKSON

Detroit

The Killer

Sir:

TIME'S Nov. 5 "Death in the Jack Pines" was a masterly bit of adventure short-story writing. One out to kill is himself killed. Thus nature, occasionally, balances her accounts with mankind.

K. G. CONNABLE China Lake, Calif.

Prima Donnas

Sir:

Re this Callas (rhymes with callous) canary (TIME, Oct. 29): here is a woman whose "best hours are in bed . . . with my dog cuddling beside me and my husband asleep"; a terrible-tempered, conceited character who tells her mother to go drown herself. Who does she think she is? The Elvis Presley of the longhairs?

JULES M. LIEBERTHAL New York City

Sir:

Callas has better acting ability, stage presence, and general all-round zonk than Tebaldi. All that Tebaldi can do is sing better than Callas.

WARREN SNYDER

Evanston, Ill.

Sir:

I am truly astonished at the statements made by my colleague Signora Maria Meneghini Callas regarding me. The signora admits to being a woman of character and says that I have no backbone. I reply: I have one great thing that she has not--a heart.

That I actually trembled when I knew she was present at a performance of mine is utterly ridiculous. It was not Signora Callas who caused me to stay away from La Scala; I sang there before she did, and consider myself a Creatura della Scala. I stayed away of my own free will because an atmosphere not at all pleasant had been created there.

RENATA TEBALDI Chicago

Chennault's CAT

Sir:

I would like to express my appreciation for your very nice article [Oct. 29] about me. As a postscript to the last paragraph of your article, I would like to tell you that practically no one in either the U.S. or China considered it possible to organize and operate a privately owned airline in China. I attempted to find operational capital for our proposed airline in New York but was unable to raise one dollar on our prospects. Nevertheless, we did organize and operate an airline under the most adverse circumstances imaginable.

C. L. CHENNAULT Major General (ret.), U.S.A.F. Taipei, Formosa

Ferber's Giant

Sir:

Your Oct. 22 review of the motion picture Giant was a lengthy review, a fine one, and most gratifying to the producers of the picture. Certain statements to do with the actual business foundation of the picture should be corrected. It was the eventual business producer, Henry Ginsberg, who read the novel and who first presented the partnership plan. You stated that there were no other offers for the filming of Giant. Offers were presented and considered. George Stevens and Henry Ginsberg had the courage to follow the intent of the book. In this I felt repaid for the four years of travel, research and writing.

EDNA FERBER New York City

Champion

Sir:

By calling Mary Martin (in Born Yesterday) "TV champion," TIME, Nov. 5 implies that she walloped Elvis Presley (on The Ed Sullivan Show) in the weekly Sunday-at-8 fracas. According to Trendex pulse-takers, Elvis outwriggled Mary 39.1 to 18.4.

ED SULLIVAN New York City

Semper Fi (Contd.)

Sir:

The Marine Corps has always been a top-notch outfit. How can it possibly keep outstanding men when it treats its families and marines so shabbily? Am I to believe that all the Army, Navy and Air Force in the Far East is rendered useless because some have their families with them?

C. L. LEONARD

Los Angeles

Sir:

Pate (with wife on arm!) is a do-as-I-say, not as-I-do. May all his men join first-class Americans--the well-treated U.S.A.F.

JANE S. SNOWDEN Fullerton, Calif.

Those Aching Joints

Sir:

I do not know who wrote the Nov. 5 article on Dan Dale Alexander (whose patients have benefited by the treatment prescribed in his Arthritis and Common Sense), but I think it was an unjust attempt to malign a true humanitarian.

C. EMORY MARKEY

Altadena, Calif.

Sir:

As chairman of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Foundation, I have been trying to alert the people to this serious group of diseases or conditions from the standpoint of suffering, disability and economic loss. Such articles as yours help greatly. With adequate funds for research, we will, before too long, find the cause and cure.

FLOYD B. ODLUM Indio, Calif.

Death in Hong Kong

Sir:

I was interested to see in your Oct. 22 issue a picture of a "burning taxi and cremated driver in Hong Kong." I wish to point out a small error in your description in connection with this gruesome picture. Actually, the badly burnt man whose left hand is pinned beneath the burning taxi was one of the rioters and not the taxi driver. The lucky taxi driver managed to fight his way out of the burning car and later out of the hostile crowd of rioters. I also had a very close shave that day at the same spot. I blundered into that locality in my car. The rioters quickly surrounded me and threatened to burn my car, but I was fortunate enough to get away.

K. C. LAM

Hong Kong

P: Reader Lam is right. The Associated Press, whose picture and caption TIME used, issued a correction later.--ED.

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