Letter from the Unknown

Sir:

As you can imagine, I was astonished and delighted at the review of my book, Brazen Chariots [Feb. 1]. I think it significant and reassuring that a magazine of your standing can select a book by an author who is not only unknown but a foreigner. On behalf of all foreign unknowns, I thank you.

ROBERT CRISP Ipswich, England

Voices in the Wilderness

Sir:

Your cover article on aviation safety [Feb. 22] was timely, interesting and informative. However, somebody besides the flying public was vitally interested in air safety, even in the "pre-Quesada" days: the airline pilot. We pilots frequently sounded like voices in the wilderness. Flight safety is, always has been, and always will be our most important product.

A. G. ANDERSON American Air Lines Lombard, Ill.

Sir:

It is ludicrous to assume that when Ted Curtis' report said that the Federal Aviation Agency should be run by a civilian it meant the first general who could get his uniform off. Your article was good, well written and obviously very well researched. But I sometimes get the feeling that Quesada thinks the cone of silence is the lull after a general gives an order.

W. C. HELLER Airline Captain Flourtown, Pa.

PROTEST FROM A KING

SIR:

WE WISH TO VOICE OUR GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT, SHOCK AND SURPRISE AT THE OUTRAGEOUS PIECE OF POOR-QUALITY REPORTING IN YOUR FEB. 15 ISSUE. IT IS NOT BEFITTING ONE OF THE GREATEST MAGAZINES OF OUR DAY. IN EVERY WALK OF LIFE THERE ARE SET AND KNOWN ETHICAL STANDARDS. THE PRESS HAS GREAT WEIGHT AND IMPORTANCE IN OUR LIVES, AND THEREFORE ITS COMPLIANCE WITH ETHICAL STANDARDS SHOULD BE NOBLER AND PROPORTIONATE TO THE GREAT RESPONSIBILITY IT CARRIES. TIME HAS AN EVEN HEAVIER ONE DUE TO THE POSITION IT OCCUPIES IN WORLD PUBLIC OPINION. IT SHOULD, IN MY VIEW, ABIDE BY THE HIGHEST DEGREE OF ACCURATE, RESPONSIBLE REPORTING. IT SHOULD SET AN EXAMPLE. THIS I SUGGEST BECAUSE I FEEL THAT A MAGAZINE LIKE TIME BELONGS TO ALL ITS READERS IN, THE SAME WAY THAT IT BELONGS TO ITS

OWNERS.

THE CROWN PRINCE, MY BROTHER, ENJOYS MY FULL CONFIDENCE AND BACKING. I AM PROUD OF WHAT HE HAS BECOME AT HIS AGE. I AM CONFIDENT THAT HE IS AND ALWAYS SHALL BE A HASHEMITE, HUMBLE, YET PROUD OF THE FACT THAT AS HASHEMITES WE HAVE ALWAYS SERVED THIS ARAB NATION, OUR NATION, WHATEVER MAY HAVE BEEN OUR TITLES OR POSITIONS. WE DO NOT CLAIM INFALLIBILITY: WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES, WE ALL HAVE OUR FAULTS.

THE STRUGGLE HERE IN THIS AREA TAKES VARIOUS FORMS, INCLUDING WHAT PRINCE MOHAMMED AND MYSELF HAVE FACED IN THE WAY OF SLANDEROUS ATTACKS SUCH AS THE RUMORS YOU HAVE PRINTED ABOUT MY BROTHER, WHICH EMANATED SOLELY AND SUBVERSIVELY FROM POLITICAL RIVALRIES IN THE ARAB WORLD. MONARCHY, NOT MY BROTHER, WAS THE TARGET. I AM ASTONISHED THAT YOUR EDITORS DID NOT FIRST INVESTIGATE THEM, AND SECOND RECOGNIZE THEIR PURPOSE.

AS FOR MONARCHY ITSELF, I BELIEVE THAT ANY FORM OF GOVERNMENT IS AS GOOD AS THE GOOD IT PRODUCES FOR ITS PEOPLE, AS GOOD AS THE PERSONS WHO ARE IN POWER. WE WELCOME RESPONSIBLE CRITICISM TO SHOW US OUR MISTAKES. YET WE FEEL THAT IN COMPARISON BETWEEN JORDAN AND OTHER TYPES OF GOVERNMENTS IN THIS AREA WE HAVE REASON TO FEEL A LITTLE PROUD OF OUR ACHIEVEMENTS.

THOSE WHO ATTACK US MIGHT DO BETTER TO IMPROVE THEMSELVES.

FINALLY, I MENTION THE HASHEMITES, AND IN DOING SO, I AM REMEMBERING THE PAST AND LOOKING TO THE FUTURE. I AM CERTAIN WE HAVE BEEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE NEEDED, BECAUSE WE ARE AN ESSENTIAL PART OF EVERYTHING ARAB. SOME OF US MAY FALL, SOME MAY DIE. THIS WE TAKE IN OUR STRIDE BECAUSE IT IS PART OF OUR DUTY TO THE ARAB PEOPLE, OUR PEOPLE. YET WE WILL SURVIVE AS LONG AS ARABISM SURVIVES. WE WERE BORN WITH THE ARAB CAUSE: ITS HISTORY HAS BEEN OUR HISTORY. WE ARE PROUD TO HAVE BEEN AND ALWAYS SHALL BE THE DEVOTED SERVANTS OF THE NOBLE ARAB CAUSE.

WE CHALLENGE THOSE IN THE AREA WHO ATTACK US TO FRUITFUL, CONSTRUCTIVE WORK, AND WE EVEN WISH THEM SUCCESS. FOR WE ALL ASK GOD TO GIVE US, AS LEADERS, REASON TO BE PROUD OF THE PRESENT AND WHAT WE DO TO BUILD TOR THE FUTURE.

HUSSEIN

AMMAN, JORDAN

SIR:

TIME CORRESPONDENTS SEEM TO HAVE LEANED TOO HEAVILY ON REPORTS FROM THE GUTTER IN THEIR STORY ABOUT THE CROWN PRINCE MOHAMMED OF JORDAN. THE INTENSE SUBVERSIVE PROPAGANDA AND POLITICAL RIVALRIES IN THE AREA ARE TRYING IN VAIN TO FIND A BREAKTHROUGH TO SMEAR WITH FALSE RUMORS H. M. KING HUSSEIN AND HIS MOST BENEVOLENT AND SUCCESSFUL MONARCHY. THIS, I AM SORRY TO SAY, IS THE TRAP INTO WHICH YOUR REPORTERS HAVE BLINDLY FALLEN. I THINK IF THEY HAD INVESTIGATED MORE CAREFULLY THEY WOULD HAVE FOUND EMIR MOHAMMED IS AS RESPONSIBLE AND NO MORE ROWDY THAN AN AVERAGE 19-YEAR-OLD ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.

WASFI ELTELL CHIEF OF NATIONAL GUIDANCE AMMAN, JORDAN

P: TIME, which did not merely base its reporting on rumors from Hashemite enemies, is happy to put on the record the King's spirited and eloquent defense of his younger brother, the crown prince.--ED.

Sir:

Pete Quesada, FAA administrator, may be too independent to suit airline and union brass. But back in 1937 Captain Pete and his dachshund "Otto" were GI favorites at Fort Leavenworth. Of the 45 Army fliers there, Pete and ten others later became generals. EARL E. WILLIAMS North Canton, Ohio

Toward the Highest Ideals

Sir:

It seems that some of the men quoted in answer to President Eisenhower's expression of faith in the durability of American democracy (Feb. 15) are most eager to replace "aspiration" with "achievement" as the highest virtue. It appears that some of them have sustained severe injury from the truly "ultimate weapon" of destruction--the weapon of fear. Nearly every one of them uses words or phrases such as "achievement," "conquest," "political and military struggle," "falling behind," "cope with Communism," "prevail," "intense effort." These expressions all suggest that our greatest need is reputation rather than character.

The founders of our nation aspired to liberty and obtained it--not by idolizing "achievement," but by persistently stumbling toward their highest ideals.

(THE REV.) RAYMOND D. GROFF United Church of Christ Zieglerville, Pa.

Sir:

I submit that you are more tolerant than I in not laying the blame for the crisis squarely where it belongs, namely, President Eisenhower, who has failed to measure up to the greatness of which he is capable and for which I voted. Not that I have been able to find anyone yet who can do better.

JOHN A. HENRY Los Angeles

Sir:

I am astonished and chagrined at the President's suggestion that our democratic system is somehow fated to prevail over Communism. I am amazed that the leader of our world power should display such a dismal lack of historical consciousness.

Pericles' Athens, with its highest attainments of art, intellect and democracy, was much worthier than the despotic Sparta. Yet Sparta, and later Macedonia and Rome, were to prevail over this finest flowering of ancient culture. Constantine's Rome was certainly to be preferred to barbarism--yet Rome fell, and Europe was to sleep through a millennium of Dark Ages.

I believe Santayana once remarked that "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." We shall have democracy only so long as we deserve it--and defend it.

ERNEST D. PARTRIDGE JR. Upper Montclair, N.J.

No Contact

Sir:

For your information, [Feb. 8] I do not wear contact lenses or glasses or a monocle.

DEBORAH KERR London

Too Much Pressure

Sir:

As a future scientist, I usually read the science section in the copy of TIME my family receives. In your Feb. 15 issue I noted the article about the deep-sea explorations of the Trieste.

From the background I have received in our eighth-grade science course at Kemble

School, I figure the pressure per square inch at 30,000 ft. deep would be about 6 1/2 tons rather than the 6,000 tons you stated.

I thought this, perhaps, would be of help in correcting your error.

RANDOLPH BECKER Utica, N.Y.

P: Reader Becker is right, TIME and its slipping slide-rule abysmally wrong.--ED.

The Issues

Sir:

In this critical age, defining the issues [Feb. 15] and reporting on the presidential candidates is not enough. The times call for real leadership. Since there are no statesmen running, but only politicians practicing nothing more than the same old vote-getting techniques, you should make a search for an outstanding statesman who cares not one whit whether he gets any votes or not. If such is not possible, you should invent him--a character who speaks out--proposes solutions--answers and challenges the other candidates--solicits opinions from our best-informed citizens. It might bring some fundamentals into clearer focus.

HANS J. HENSE Aurora, Ohio

Christians & Jews

Sir:

I think it takes a lot of gall for Christians like the Rev. Dr. H. Conrad Hoyer ["Mission to Jews," Feb. 15] to assume that he has the "duty" to convert Jews to his brand of religion.

DAVID GROSSMAN Anaheim, Calif.

Sir:

Should not the Rev. Dr. Hoyer try to convert Christians to Christ before he takes on the task of converting Jews?

CHARLES LEVIN Philadelphia

Sir:

The opposite of Dr. Hoyer's statement is true. We now think that the time is ripe to convert gentiles to Judaism. In the words of Arnold Toynbee: "The future of Judaism is to convert the world . . . Does not the real future of the Jews and Judaism lie in spreading Judaism in its authentic form, rather than in its Christian or Muslim form, over the whole world? Is not this the Jews' future gift to the world?"

RABBI MOSHE M. MAGGAL Temple Beth Kodesh Canoga Park, Calif.

Poetry Corner

Sir:

I read the poem criticizing Senator John Kennedy in your Letters column [Feb. 15]. May I present mine on his behalf?

How I pray I'll see the day

When the Southern bigots will have to say,

"He's Irish, he's Catholic, he's from Back

Bay, And there he sits in the White House

today."

THOMAS A. O'GORMAN Santa Monica, Calif.

Too Much Gloom?

Sir:

As an Alaskan somewhat familiar with the new state's economic future, I feel TIME has presented an unnecessarily gloomy picture [Feb. 8]. Alaska's legislators have never before had a free hand in guiding the state. It is only natural for them to proceed with caution and occasionally with timidity. As they familiarize themselves with the job, their confidence will grow. Indeed, the caution evidenced by their first year's work is assurance that Alaska will stay out of debt.

May I add that as a Juneauite born and bred, I was incensed to hear my city dubbed "fog-plagued." Examination of Air Force flight records will show all Alaskan cities to be occasionally fogbound--as are Washington and New York City. Federal aid for airports has in the past been given primarily to militarily important Anchorage and Fairbanks. Navigational aids, as a result, have been better in those cities.

ANABEL CONNOR Washington, D.C.

Booby Prize

SIR:

FOR EXCELLENCE IN COVERAGE OF ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH ARTICLES ABOUT FRANK PRINCE [Feb. 22], WOULD LIKE TO NOMINATE TIME

PRESS DEPARTMENT FOR PULITZER PRIZE.

LEONARD P. ROME, M.D. ST. LOUIS

Sir:

There have been times when we have suspected that the highly competent St. Louis Post-Dispatch rated itself an assistant god. Apparently its recent decision to run a sensational story of doubtful news value was the P-D's way of announcing it had just been promoted.

BETTY GRAHAM BETZ Bourbonnais, Ill.

Tough Talk

Sir:

Thomas Lanphier's appeal for an airborne SAC alert and his statements on the American defense position [Feb. 15] could not have been dismissed in a more uninformative article.

Surely, if a group of prominent physicians predicted a grave epidemic unless vaccine was immediately administered to the people, the people would be more concerned about the nature of the disease and the effectiveness of the vaccine than a reporter's opinion on the doctors' motives.

MURIEL ROSENBERG Los Angeles

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