Adenauer's Germany

Sir:

. . . The Adenauer cover story [TIME, Aug. 31] could not have been better. A true report of a great statesman . . .

HART H. KAHLKE

Brooklyn, N.Y.

Sir:

Being myself a half-German ... I was deeply moved when I read your superb story. It is interesting to notice that Germany, as a defeated country, is much more powerful and advanced today than some of its conquerors. Let us hope that this nation, which is capable of accomplishing great things, will not fall into the hands of maniacs similar to the ones who came into power in 1933.

GEORGE KOVACS Montreal, Que.

Wistful & Delectable

Sir:

Thanks for painting Audrey Hepburn [Sept. 7 cover] honestly, for here's an actress alternately wistful and delectable. Only less fragile and more dramatic than Chaliapin's counterpoint--an adolescent's ice cream cone.

If Hollywood and its mental dwarfs resist undermining her original talent and broad theatrical range, why then she's already passed those cruel steppingstones to stardom.

T , JOHN L. SUTER Vincennes, Ind.

Von Papen, Pro & Con

Sir:

In reviewing my Memoirs [Aug. 17], your magazine expresses obviously biased and hostile opinions concerning my official career and my personal character. As a person and governmental official who has lived in the public eye, I cannot escape reactions, hostile or otherwise, to my own public actions. However, when these opinions are coupled with gross inaccuracies, I must protest ... I am fully aware of what the world press has written about me and my career. Constant repetition of false and libelous statements about me has resulted in giving me a sinister reputation.

In your review you state: 1) Von Papen "hired saboteurs he did not know . . . [and he] has been widely suspected of organizing the 1916 munitions explosion at the Black Tom pier in Jersey City and the 1917 ex plosion that wrecked the Canadian Car & Foundry plant at Kingsland, N.J. In 1939, a Mixed Claims Commission found Germany guilty of both blasts." The Mixed Claims Commission rejected these accusations, and only after the German member had been withdrawn, a purely American commission granted the claims. 2) You further state that I "repeatedly cabled in the clear the name of at least one fellow spy (who was caught)." This is a flat lie, and I challenge you to prove this statement. 3) You further state that I "tried to conquer Austria for the Nazis 'peacefully' by organizing sabotage and propaganda." The NUernberg Tribunal, composed of the four victorious powers, which certainly had no friendly feelings for me, decided on these accusations and acquitted me. You should at least accept the verdict of your own tribunal.

You describe me as "a diplomat who practiced duplicity." You surely are not so naive as to think that only German diplomats practiced what you call "duplicity," and that the American, British, French, Russian, Italian, Chinese, etc., diplomats were simon-pure characters who never even told the conventional ''white lie" in furtherance of their country's policies? As I said before, you are certainly free to express whatever opinion you ma>' have about me and my political life. But I think it is below TIME's standards to depart from factual truth as your reviewer has done.

FRANZ VON PAPEN Obersasbach, Baden, Germany

P: Reader von Papen has a talent for being misunderstood, 1) Uni.il he was expelled from the U.S. as military attache in 1916, his duty--as he saw it--was "to delay the delivery of war material to the enemy." That the sabotage in the Black Tom and Kingsland explosions was organized by the German government was decided (after 20 years of international court wrangling) by a Mixed Claims Commission, finally composed only of Americans because the German member withdrew. Reason: it was clear that not only sabotage but fraud on Germany's part had been proved to the commission's satisfaction. 2) The spy (caught in 1915 by the British on his way from the U.S. to Germany) was the late Captain Franz von Rintelen. The late Sir Reginald Hall, former Chief of British Naval Intelligence, told Von Rintelen: "Von Papen wired and wirelessed your name so often to Berlin in good, honest, straightforward German that he just played you into our hands. It seemed almost deliberate." 3) In acquitting Von Papen on specific charges, the Nurnberg Tribunal stated: "The evidence leaves no doubt that

Von Papen's primary purpose . . . was to undermine the Schuschnigg regime and strengthen the Austrian Nazis for the purpose of bringing about Anschluss. To carry through this plan, he engaged in both intrigue and bullying . . ."--ED.

The Old School

Sir:

Re Kester Avenue School [Van Nuys, Calif.] in your Sept. 7 issue: If an architect puts all his heart and vision into a project, it does not get obsolete, old and discarded. It lasts as a good investment. This is a comfort to me . . . Your lovely color picture shows not the Kester school [see cut], which I designed most recently, but the Bell school [in Bell, Calif.] ... I take it as an honor that you put it together with all the fine projects of latest vintage.

RICHARD NEUTRA Los Angeles

Crucial Case

Sir:

Re the Aug. 31 story, "A Crucial Case of Murder," and ex-Sergeant Bob Toth: The plight of Toth must be practically without precedent in the U.S., and it may be well to replace the reading of the Articles of War to the military men with a reading of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. That military men had the audacity to take Mr. Toth from his place of employment without due course of law and then to "kidnap" him with travel outside of his native land is beyond the comprehension of any law-abiding, moral citizen.

Are these military VIPs beyond the reach of civil and moral codes of law ? Should not we continue the basis for all American justice, namely, that the accused is innocent until convicted by a jury of his peers? Are the men of the Air Force's court-martial the peers of Bob Toth, private citizen of the U.S.? Such acts can only be condemned ... I hope Bob Toth gives them a sound thrashing in every way possible . .

F. L. MENDEZ JR. Rochester, Minn.

Sir:

. . . Evidently Toth and Airman Kinder were involved in court-martial because of the provision of Article 118, which reads: "Justification does not exist, however, when . . . the order is such that a man of ordinary sense and understanding would know it to be illegal . . ." That phrase, "a man of ordinary sense and understanding," seems to be the crux of the problem involving both Toth and Kinder . . .

S/SGT. WILLIAM W. BOLEN U.S.A.F. c/o Postmaster Seattle

Sir:

. . . The article stated that "no one questioned the sentence" of Lieut. George Schreiber . . . Schreiber is a graduate of Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Ind., and was respected there and in his home town of Brookfield, Ill. The officer in charge of the section to which Schreiber was assigned testified in court that he was the best man the Army had sent him in two years, that he reorganized the guard unit and cut pilferage losses . . . Lieut. Schreiber's friends are organizing a fund for his defense. That proves that some people do question the sentence . . .

JOHN B. MORLAND Bremen, Ind.

Science or Religion

Sir:

TIME deserves the highest commendation for its unbiased "let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may" policy of publishing interesting and important material on religious matters. A case in point is your Science Department article [Aug. 31], quoting (from the Roman Catholic Commonweal) Notre Dame Scientist Julian Pleasants, who offers his explanation of the comparative scarcity of scientists turned out by Roman Catholic colleges . . .

A. W. MORRILL Arcadia, Calif.

Sir:

. . . My answer to the question why there are so few Catholic scientists lies in the inadequacy of the education that Catholics receive. Catholic education does not encourage the inquiring mind, the training and the use of the imagination required by science. Being a former Catholic, and having attended the Catholic separate school, my feeling is that the fundamental weakness of Catholic education is their childlike and simple explanation of God. We all feel that there is a higher power, but when we try to explain this power in terms of human experience, it seems to me that we must inevitably arrive at that point where human explanation is impossible. At this point we reach the barrier of infinity. It is only by the use of imagination that we can cross this barrier.

However, since "Catholic philosophy is almost sheer formalism," to quote Mr. Pleasants, imagination is not needed by the young Catholic, nor is it encouraged. On the other hand, the "formulae" are so pounded into his thinking, and he is so strongly discouraged from looking beyond them, that it takes almost a lifetime to dislodge them. It took me about five years to overcome these restrictions to my thinking and to acquire broader concepts of God and creation . . .

M. VALERIOTE Guelph, Ont.

Sir:

. . . Actually, it is probably much easier to be a Catholic scientist than Protestant because the Church believes there is no conflict between truths. For example, we believe that evolution was and is a Christian development. So are other branches of science. After all, God is the greatest scientist of all. Men merely discover the things He has already done. Why any conflict? . . .

JACK RAAB Orange, Calif.

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