Death Struggle in Greece
Sir:
FULLY RECOGNIZING YOUR KEEN INTEREST IN AROUSING AMERICA TO REAL MENACE OF COMMUNISM, MAY I CALL UPON YOU TO HELP GREEK NATION PRESENTLY ENGAGED IN DEATH STRUGGLE WITH FORCES OF COMMUNISM, OUTCOME OF WHICH IS OF CRUCIAL IMPORTANCE TO WESTERN DEMOCRACIES, AND VERY PRINCIPLES FOR WHICH WE IN AMERICA FIGHT.
MY INTENSE FEELING IN THIS MATTER RESULTS FROM RECENT TRIP MADE TO GREECE, WHEN AT GENERAL VAN FLEET'S INVITATION ACCOMPANIED HIM ON VISIT TO FIGHTING FRONTS. FROM FIRST-HAND OBSERVATIONS, LEARNED GREECE IS FIGHTING COMMUNISTS IN FULL-SCALE ALL-OUT WAR WHICH IS MOST VIOLENT AND RUTHLESS IN HER HISTORY. TRUE TO HER TRADITION, GREECE AGAIN FIGHTS TO PRESERVE WESTERN DEMOCRATIC CIVILIZATION.
AFTER VISITING REFUGEE AND CHILDREN'S CAMPS, TALKING WITH PRISONERS OF WAR, AM ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED GUERRILLA ARMIES COMPOSED OF DIEHARD COMMUNISTS AND CRIMINAL AND LAWLESS ELEMENTS INTENT ON DESTROYING EVERYTHING GREEK WHILE THEY PILLAGE, RAPE AND PLUNDER. PATRIOTS OF RESISTANCE MOVEMENT LEFT GUERRILLAS WHEN GREECE WAS LIBERATED, AND COMMUNISTS TOOK OVER, FOR THEY KNOW COMMUNIST AIM IS TO DESTROY GREECE, MAKE HER A COMMUNIST SATELLITE BY ESTABLISHING RUSSIAN DOMINATION OF MEDITERRANEAN.
DESPITE NINE YEARS INVASION, OCCUPATION AND BITTER PRIVATION, COURAGE AND DETERMINATION OF GREEK PEOPLE ADMIRABLE. HOWEVER WE MUST ENCOURAGE THEM TO CONTINUE PRESENT STRUGGLE JUST AS WE HAVE SHOWN WHOLEHEARTED SUPPORT BY GIVING
THEM MATERIAL AND FINANCIAL AID, WHICH HAS SAVED GREECE, AND FOR WHICH ITS PEOPLE ARE ETERNALLY GRATEFUL . .
SPYROS P. SKOURAS
New York City
Greek government troops, with U.S. help, have lately made progress against the Communist rebels. Although Tito has cut down on his aid, Soviet satellites Bulgaria and Albania continue to train and equip the Greek Reds. On both sides of the Iron Curtain the struggle for Greece is watched intently. Failure to clean out the Communist bands will be taken as evidence that the anti-Communist world has no effective answer to Communist rebellion.--ED.
Open Wide and Bear It
Sir:
Shocking to read that dentists are plotting more anesthesia on us neurotic humans [TIME, March 28]. Horrifying to observe such regression in an otherwise progressive profession--and just when obstetricians have been teaching us mothers the evil of our abnormal ways in desiring anesthesia with childbirth! Surely we will love the old molar more if, while it is being yanked out, we are permitted to grit the others in full consciousness, and then perhaps hold it tenderly in our palm. Come now, let us have Dentistry Without Fear--and, TIME, please don't soften us with that old propaganda that pain really hurts.
ALICE ADAMS
San Francisco, Calif.
Textron, Trusts & Taxes
Sir:
In the Feb. 28 issue of TIME, you ran an article based on Senator Tobey's recent Textron report. As you state in your article, Tobey certainly had been "gunning for" me, and, as a result, I feel his one-man investigation was completely biased and his report in many respects inaccurate.
In your article there are two statements on which I would like to comment, since they may prove misleading to readers:
1) In Paragraph 2, you mention "... tax-exempt foundations and charitable trusts which hold title to most of the property in Little's $60-million textile empire." Only two of Textron's 26 plants are owned by tax-exempt foundations or trusts, and one of those is the Tobey-sponsored Nashua-New Hampshire Foundation.
2) In Paragraph 7, you state that the various "fiscal manipulations" of the trusts ". . . gave Textron an unfair advantage over taxpaying corporations." Textron is, of course, not tax free. In fact, as a result, in part, of the financial transactions referred to by you, Textron was able to increase its sales and therefore its taxes, enormously. In 1940, Textron paid less than $60,000 in taxes; in 1947, more than $6,000,000 in state and federal income taxes.
In reading Senator Tobey's report, I hope the public will realize that in this man the nation has a great crusader of the Don Quixote type. I just happen to be his current windmill ...
ROYAL LITTLE
Narragansett, R.I.
Gigantic Revolution
Sir:
As a short-term resident of Britain, I heartily endorse your sympathetic evaluation of Aneurin Bevan and his part in the socialization of Britain [TIME, March 21]. Thank you for your help in enabling Americans . . . to understand the comparatively quiet but nonetheless gigantic revolution in one of the world's greatest nations . . .
Last year I lived in Edinburgh . . . and it was evident that in spite of austerity the people on the whole were faring better than ever before in food and health, with the more equitable distribution derived from a planned economy and socialized medicine.
(REV.) JAMES R. WOODRUFF Orangeburg, N. Y.
Sir:
. . . You state the case correctly when you say that the doctors are obliged to join or to starve; you must know that the sop of private practice is not a real alternative--there is practically none . . .
The socialist idea is obviously the prime point in all this, and you emphasize it. It seems you under-emphasize the prodigious waste and inefficiency of the socialist idea.
W. F. POLLOCK, M.D. Santa Monica, Calif.
Sir:
... It seems to me that the question of quality versus distribution is one of the fundamental, though unrecognized, differences between the proponents and opponents of compulsory health insurance. The social reformers see only the inequalities and the poor distribution in the present system, but ignore the question of quality, and in fact do not have the necessary training to understand what quality medical care really means. The doctors, on the other hand, are primarily interested in quality, and are extremely cognizant of this aspect of medicine, while they have ignored the maldistribution of the present system until forced into action by those outside the profession. If both sides can only recognize their faults and learn a little tolerance, perhaps a workable plan can be evolved . . .
J. PHILIP AMBUEL, M.D. Bremerton, Wash.
Sir:
. . . I'm informed, a little comforted, and not quite so scared of "socialized medicine" . . .
RICHARD C. WEDEL Durand, Ill.
Trollope's Tinker
Sir:
Everyone who has known Professor Chauncey Tinker will be pleased by your discerning notice of his achievements [TIME, March 28]. Some may wish, however, that you had mentioned another of his literary preferences, one to which he is as devoted as to Boswell and Johnson: Anthony Trollope. He owns, and has brought together for the Yale library, the finest collection of Trollope manuscripts in the world.
BRADFORD A. BOOTH Los Angeles, Calif.
At Harpers Ferry
Sir:
In your report on the Mildred Gillars case, you state: "No traitor has ever been executed in the U.S. for treason against the U.S." [TIME, March 21].
What about John Brown and his fellow raiders on the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry? Brown was convicted of treason Oct. 31, 1859 --
EARL G. TALBOTT New York City
John Brown was convicted of treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, not the U.S.--ED.
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