Neither Planes nor Scandal

Sir: The last two sentences of "New Planes," in the Feb. 4 issue, knocked the breath out of me. "Current production [of planes for the Navy] is so slow that it cannot even make up the deficit in Korean losses, training accidents and normal wear & tear. The situation is so bad, said [Assistant Navy Secretary for Air] Floberg, that the Navy actually has 1,000 planes fewer than it did 20 months ago when the Korean war began." Bad enough, but still worse, is that an Assistant Navy Secretary for Air can make such a statement without raising a skyrocketing scandal, without a big and hearty outburst of public indignation, without a Senate investigation committee . . . FERENC BARKO Rio de Janeiro

The Indispensable Ally

Sir: Please accept my heartiest congratulations for your Feb. 4 cover article concerning C. D. Howe, an outstanding Canadian. I hope that millions of Americans will read it, and by so doing help to dispel the amazing ignorance of Canada that is so prevalent in these United States . . . ELSPETH BEIER Ballston Lake, N.Y.

Sir: As an Argentine, I enjoyed your cover story. Canada is a country with some striking similarities to Argentina: [smaller] population but same geographical position, and similar natural resources. But Canada has come of age in industries and we have not. Guess what we need is someone like Mr. Howe. JIM ROSSI-GUERRERO Socorro, New Mex.

Sir: Your article about Canada was exciting. I knew Canada was going places, but I hadn't realized that it had gone so far . . . JACK SHAVER Tilton, Ill.

Sir: I so much liked your story ... At the same time, may I put in a "well done" for Mr. Howe? We are proud of him. My ambition has always been to move to the U.S.A., but after this, I wonder, maybe the grass is greener here. J. E. POLLAND COTE St. Ephrem de Beauce, Que.

Sir: . . . No one should detract from the credit due Mr. Howe for his accomplishments, but since he is a product of 200 years of New England Americanism, is it Canada or Yankee upbringing that made him possible? . . . You admit until recently Canadians were timid about investing their own funds in Canada's enterprises. Therefore, it was Yankee cash and nerve that showed the way and took the early gamble. Give credit where credit is due. ALLAN S. RICHARDSON Denver

Tribute to a Soldier

Sir: Your Feb. 4 issue was the only magazine noting the passing of Major General Robert H. Soule. To most Americans he was just another "brasshat," but to the 18,000 officers and men who served under him the loss was great. "Shorty" Soule contributed more to our Korean campaign than the general public realizes. His peerless leadership at Hungnam was the difference between a successful operation and disaster. He wholeheartedly gave his talents--and he gave his life. In many different parts of the world today, you've made 18,000 new friends. GLENN C. COWART Lieutenant, U.S.A. New Orleans

Brazen Blackmail [Hungarian Style]

Sir: The letters in your Jan. 21 issue of Lieut. Lerch and Mr. Ball [who angrily commented on the U.S. paying $120,000 ransom to Hungary for the release of four U.S. flyers] were very much to the point. Although only an ex-Hungarian, I felt very much ashamed for such a gangsterlike extortion by my former country, and now these two letters make me act. I am sure the only proper thing for anybody who is a Hungarian, or ever has been one, is to find the money to cover the amount of this brazen blackmail, and to refund it to the U.S. Government. There is plenty of money in Hungarian and ex-Hungarian hands in New York, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, and I fervently hope that this letter will be read by a few public-minded people, who will take up the cause. As for myself, I am enclosing my check for $200, which I would be pleased for you to forward to the proper quarters. I would like to make it quite clear that the movement proposed by me should in no way be construed as an attempt to whitewash Hungary. Its only meaning is to enable Uncle Sam to write off this bad-smelling item in his books . . . PAUL DE GYARMATHY Stateless ex-Hungarian Kobe, Japan

P: TIME has forwarded Reader de Gyarmathy's check to the U.S. Treasury Department--ED.

Protesting Protestants (Cont'd)

Sir: Opposing the sending of an ambassador to the Vatican by the American Council of Christian Churches [TIME, Feb. 4] is one thing, but publicly debasing the Roman Catholic Church, or any church, is another. While Americans of every religion are fighting and dying in Korea, the Rev. Carl McIntire is busy calling Catholicism a worse enemy than Communism . . . F. A. BOTHWELL Narberth, Pa.

Sir: ... I am an ardent believer in the Protestant faith. I have also written to my Senator concerning the appointment of an ambassador to the Vatican, which I am vehemently against . . . However, to my utter dismay, a group of such Protestants ventured to Washington, D.C. and displayed a shameful act of bigotry. Their statements and general actions were not displayed to express their opposition to the appointment but to express their disdain for our friends and neighbors, the Roman Catholics . . . CLARKE SCHAAF Springfield, Mass.

Sir: Ho hum--don't men like the Rev. Carl McIntire . . . ever get tired panning Roman Catholicism? PATRICIA SOMERS Chicago

Sir: We appreciated very much your reporting of "Protesting Protestants," [but] if you are going to refer to us as a "fundamentalist organization," then by all rights you should refer to the National Council [of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.] as a liberal or modernist organization. I have been ministering here in Collingswood 18 years, and we regret your slur upon the Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood ... I am a minister in good and regular standing in this church. To refer to me as "a deposed minister" is contrary to the facts and the records . . . CARL MCINTIRE Bible Presbyterian Church Collingswood, N.J.

P: TIME said the Rev. Carl McIntire was "a deposed minister of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A." In 1935, when Mr. McIntire repudiated this group, in which he was ordained, the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. also repudiated Mr. McIntire.--ED.

Dallas Report

Sir: You attribute to me in the Feb. 4 issue a statement that ". . . anyone is just a damned fool to buy anything at retail," that "more & more" of my wholesale electric-appliance business "is coming from 'discount houses.' " The fact is, I have never sold to nor received an order from a discount house, and in my opinion the consumer who patronizes [one] is a damned fool because he usually makes a bad investment, does not get his money's worth and seriously damages the legitimate and traditional American economy upon which the discount house is an unwarranted and unjustifiable parasite. J. J. SHEA Dallas

Eagle Scout Ceremony

Sir: Your motion picture editor has made an observation which cannot pass unchallenged. The excellent Jan. 28 review of Room for One More [refers to] the conducting of an Eagle Scout badge-award ceremony with "the solemnity of a coronation" . . . The pomp and circumstance connected with such an award is not designed to impress cynical and worldly-wise adults, but, rather, is centered on the boy himself. The award of Eagle rank is the highest honor that scouting can bestow . . . Parents may prod, and leaders may coax, but the boy himself must do the work . . . After a formidable array of obstacles has been surmounted, no award ceremony is too great to convince the boy that for one night at least, he is on top of the world. (PvT.) ALAN F. HUGHES Fort Dix, N.J.

P: To the 10,708 boys officially qualified as Eagles by the Boy Scouts of America last year, the tenderfooted apologies of TIME'S Cinema Editor.--ED.

Bigots, Anvils, Urchins, etc.

Sir: Your Feb. 4 item on the new security classification, "cosmic," created by NATO, implies that this is the first use of a classification higher than top-secret . . . Early in 1944, Allied Force HQ in Algiers began planning for the invasion of southern France that year; the code word "BIGOT" was assigned as the security classification if or those matters which were "even more secret than top-secret." In fact, "BIGOT Y" card holders were authorized to see papers which personnel assigned "BIGOT X" cards could not--which placed "BIGOT Y" two security classifications above mere top-secret. Despite these precautions . . . the southern France invasion (named ANVIL) was notorious as the worst-kept secret of the war. I recall hearing Neapolitan street urchins in July calling at members of our combat divisions: "Hey, Joe, when you go to France--next month?" GILBERT L. BURTON Palo Alto, Calif.

Pennies for Pakistan

Sir:

Re your Feb. 4 story concerning the attitude of Pakistan over our piddling offer of $8 to $12 million in Point Four aid [an official source from Karachi said they were "insulted"]. TIME, and the American public, should be insulted that we have offered Pakistan this paltry sum when we are willing to [pour] $50 million down the drain in India (because Nehru plays footie with Mao and Joe), and another $24 million to Mossadegh's clique, who are playing footie with each other, waiting for their tanker to come in ... India, land of muddy rivers and muddy liberalism, led by Nehru alone ... is no more in need of $50 million for undeveloped areas than is Pakistan, and stands to offer much less in return . . . LOUIS DUPREE Cambridge, Mass.

Historic Hostel

Sir: I was attracted by your vivid Feb. 4 description of the riots in Ismailia and Cairo. Referring to the destruction of the historic Shepheard's Hotel, you mention eminent men who have visited this hostel. I can readily understand that "Kitchener stopped in after the Battle of Omdurman," since that battle occurred in 1898. You state, however, that "Explorer Stanley dropped in after finding Dr. Livingstone." Since that memorable event in the jungles of Africa occurred in 1871, and, according to your own statement, Shepheard's Hotel was not built until 1891, a score of years must have intervened . . . THEODORE W. ANDERSON Chicago

P: The original Shepheard's was established in 1841, 30 years before Stanley found Dr. Livingstone. It is the modern structure (burnt to the ground last month) that was rebuilt in 1891.--ED.

Culling All Children

Sir:

I was interested in your Feb. 4 report, "Ordeal in London" [a British test to screen children for higher education]. I think this points out very adequately the inadvisability and unfairness of competitive education for children. As pointed out, an educational system which forces children between ten and twelve years of age to take an examination to decide . . . their academic future, is like prophesying the racing ability of a six-month-old colt from its forced performance round a field. Neither the child nor the colt is sufficiently mature to show his true ability.

This system in Britain is unfair because if parents are sufficiently wealthy, then on failing the selective examinations, the child will be sent at personal expense to a public school where he will get an adequate education; whereas, the child who fails and whose parents cannot afford it will have no further opportunity for a future university training. This system, therefore, does not give equal educational facilities for all, as it was originally planned . . . R. G. WALTON, M.D. University of Michigan Ann Arbor

Sir: . . . Wasn't there anyone on your staff who recognized the real outrage in your story--that the state is usurping a natural right of parents to decide how their children should be educated? . . . NEIL MCCAFFREY JR. Pelham Manor, N.Y.

Sir: . . . It is a well-known fact that all children are born with different capacities for doing school work, and that as they grow older, the difference between the mental age of a bright child and that of a dull child becomes increasingly greater. In other words, the range of mental ages that you find in a typical American high school is far greater than is found on the grade school level. To take extreme measures like those which England has adopted to reduce the secondary-school enrollment would, of course, not be applicable here, because public opinion is too solidly entrenched in the belief that every child has the right and the capacity to finish high school. It would be a great step forward if some sort of competitive examination were given, to cull out the most troublesome and the most illiterate from the secondary schools, if for no other purpose than to provide our teachers with better working conditions . . . There would, of course, still remain the problem of what to do with the academic culls after they are relieved from competition in the lopsided struggle for school education. Either we must provide schools like those of England, or else allow them to enter the labor market. From a struggling teacher in his third year. HARLAN E. FIEHLER Mansfield, Mo.

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