Bogeyman?
Sirs:
It becomes more & more apparent that the military is attempting to build up a war hysteria against Russia in order to ... place control of atomic energy in the hands of the Army & Navy. If there is any group in the U.S. more incompetent and incapable of running the affairs of the nation than the Army, I have never heard of it. GOD help us if they ever gain control.
TACK C. BUCKLE Huntingdon, Pa.
Sirs:
. . . Why declare that Russia is the sole hand which stirs the potent brew ? All through our press and in the statements of our leading politicos, I see references to "aggression in Eastern Europe," "the Red menace in Iran" (how that Red bogeyman haunts us still!), and other seemingly terrifying militaristic moves. But what of the presence of British troops in Greece ? . . . What of the massacres freedom-seeking Indonesians by British and Dutch troops?
HENRY H. BAGISH
East Orange, N. J.
Esteban Franco
Sirs:
I have just returned from Spain after two and a half years there, and I want to congratulate TIME for its splendid job of reporting and fair analysis of present-day Spain [TIME, March 18]. . . .
Spaniards are referring to Franco as "Esteban" these days; when you ask them why, they look around furtively and explain gleefully: "Que se marche este bandido!" ["May this bandit get the hell out!"]
BARNABY CONRAD JR. Washington
Hangman's Folly
Sirs:
I was greatly interested in the piece about Pierrepoint, the British hangman [TIME, March 18].
I was with the 6833rd Guardhouse Overhead Detachment stationed at Shepton Mallet Prison in England for about six months.
As it was the only U.S. Army prison in England that was equipped for executions, I had occasion to meet Pierrepoint several times on his professional visits there.
His appearance is the exact opposite of the common conception of a hangman; to see him in one of the local pubs drinking his pint of ale, one would think he was a farmer who had come to the village to sell his produce. One of his favorite jokes on meeting a person is to say, "What a lovely neck." I will never forget the shudder that went over me when he told me: "Ah, you are a large man, you would drop nicely." He told me one time that he was taught the trade by his father, who hanged himself when he became too old to enjoy life, and that he [Pierrepoint] would some day do the same himself.
He is surprisingly agile for a man of over 70. After throwing the lever that released the trap, he would always spring out on the plank over the trap, and, taking hold of the still quivering rope, would look to see if the man had dropped satisfactorily, and then look around and say: "Dropped lovely, didn't he?" This usually managed to make at least one witness faint. . . .
L. E. DAVIDSON Captain, A.U.S.
Cortes: "Fascist-Minded?"
Sirs:
In the March n issue of your estimable publication appears a brief reference to the death of Mr. Leon Cortes Castro, in which it is stated that this illustrious ex-President of my country was a man of fascist tendencies. Nothing could be farther from the truth. . . .
No President of Costa Rica has been a fascist, nor could any Chief Executive of my country ever sympathize with the totalitarian nations, because every one of Costa Rica's statesmen is educated in the school of traditional Costa Rican democracy. . . .
Leon Cortes never made any attempts against continental security. As the New York Times said on March 4 of this year, he included in his inaugural address the idea launched by the then President Franklin Roosevelt for the holding of an inter-American peace conference. He worked for the Good Neighbor Policy initiated by the North American President. . . .
I confess to you that all of our Presidents have made errors in the discharge of their duties--who doesn't?--but I wish to state that the foreign policy of all of them has been above reproach. Leon Cortes, in the international field, was a true democrat, as befits a President of Costa Rica.
H. H. BONILLA Consul General of Costa Rica New York City
Sirs:
. . . Leon Cortes Castro has fought totalitarianism bitterly. Overstrain fighting such organizations killed him. . . .
AM ADO JIMENEZ ROSABAL San Jose, Costa Rica
Sirs:
... That stupid label was only a dirty political trick of the Communists and other President Calderon supporters. ... It all began in 1941, when Cortes broke off with his long supporter and follower, Dr. Calderon, who, a short time later, embarked in a complete partnership with Communists. . . .
ALBERTO F. CANAS San Jose, Costa Rica
1/2 TIME, aware that many sincere democrats supported the late President Leon Cortes Castro, still believes it fair to call him fascist-minded: 1) he accepted political support from a large group who adopted fascist trappings; 2) one of his chief advisers was the German Nazi Max Effinger, who was shipped to the U.S. for internment after Pearl Harbor; 3) he sent his son and political lieutenant to school in Germany and never repudiated the son's enthusiastic reports on Hitler.--ED.
Bartok & Szigeti
Sirs:
I protest! . . . You do [Bela Bartok] a great injustice by saying that "his music got played, if at all, before esoteric little groups of modernist composers and musicians who had built up a tolerance to what the uninitiated regarded as barnyard music" [TIME, March 18].
. . . Bartok was no artificer. He stood for all that was original and individual in music, all that was sincere and direct. . . . He wrote not for the public's hunger for sensualism and eclat. He wrote for himself, to satisfy an inner urge which said he must compose. . . .
I resent also your uncomic use of spaghetti to rhyme with Szigeti. I don't care if it does rhyme, or even if there was no other word to use. It is an insult to one of the finest artists of our times. . . .
CURTIS DAVIS
New York City
1/2 TIME sees no injustice in its report that the widespread recognition of Bela Bartok's work was belated. As for famed Violinist Szigeti, how about confetti?--ED.
Protestants & Catholics
Sirs:
As one humbly proud both of being a Catholic and of my Scottish blood, I deplore the disservice your correspondent, the Rev. Donald MacLeod, does to that honorable name in the March 11 issue. . . . His contemptuous "tin horns" of Catholicism is only to be answered by the response, "Shame!" Were he a layman I should reply, "The back-of me hand to you!"
His charge of pro-Catholic against TIME is amusing to me because as a regular reader over a period of six years, my own impression has been that TIME was often close to anti-Catholic.
Wilmington WALTER E. F. SMITH
Sirs:
The Rev. Donald MacLeod's letter entitled "Red Hats, Tin Horns" reminds me of the story of the Irishman, who, when his friend asked him if he had joined the Protestant Church on losing his faith in the Catholic, rejoined: "Begorra, I might have lost my faith, but I haven't lost my head."
... M. C. BUCKLEY
Waterbury, Conn.
Churchill's Speeches
Sirs:
Mr. Churchill's stirring addresses in Missouri and in Richmond, Va. [TIME, March 18], might very well be called a high point in understanding of the mission and responsibility of the English-speaking nations of the world; also, of a deep responsibility which a tradition carrying on from the Magna Carta to the Atlantic Charter demands. When you listened to the deep, well-known dramatic voice of "Old Winnie," you could not miss being deeply moved. . . .
ERNEST NATHAN West Warwick, R.I.
Sirs:
In your current issue you comment as follows concerning Mr. Churchill's speech:
"While the Wall Street Journal thought it brilliant, with a 'hard core of indisputable fact,' . . ."
The words you quote appeared in a contribution on the editorial page by Mr. William Henry Chamberlin, and I think it must be clear that Mr. Chamberlin was expressing his own opinion and not the opinion of the Wall Street Journal. . . . The editorial position of the Watt Street Journal on Mr. Churchill's speech is quite opposite from what you have represented it. ...
W. H. GRIMES
Editor
Wall Street Journal New York City
When Churchill Met Stalin
Sirs:
TIME'S [March 18] alteration of history has me fascinated. Referring to Churchill, you state: ". . . the man who had conferred with Stalin at Moscow, Cairo, and Yalta."
... I never believed Teheran would be dropped from history, nor that the invitation list to the Cairo conference would be posthumously revised to include Premier Stalin.
(T/5) BERNARD C. COHEN Camp Hood, Tex.
Unweary, Unbeaming Londoners Sirs:
Having read your articles on Great Britain [TIME, March 4], we cannot avoid feeling that it is necessary to correct your apparent misinformation. . . .
We are not weary--except when it is time to go to bed, and not always then. . . . We no more "beam" at the Royal Family than you at the President. None of us has heard of squirrel pie--and as for eating it!
British courtesy has not cracked. London's "cheerful cockney" still exists and always will, as long as London stands. . . .
As if anyone would make such a fuss about a banana! We should probably be ill if we did eat one!
PAULINE FEDEROFF (AND 24 OTHER 16-YEAR-OLDs) London
This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.