About the Tea-Fed Tiger

Sir:

If Krishna Menon (Feb. 2) told your reporter that Theosophy did not appeal to him, this is a complete misstatement of fact. He was an active Theosophist until he was well into his 30s. For some time he was an active organizer and propagandist for the Theosophical Society, as well as a propagandist for Mrs. Besant's Home Rule Party, which was opposed to Gandhi's and young Nehru's party in its basic policy of achieving independence through constitutional reform.

When Krishna Menon perceived that Mrs. Besant's movement was dying, as she herself was, he went over to the more extreme, aggressive Gandhi group. It was as a leader of one of Mrs. Besant's troops of Indian Boy Scouts that he got his start in public life as a Boy Scout commissioner.

My interviews with Krishna Menon (I am writing a biography of Mrs. Besant) confirm Honor Balfour's minority impression. He was friendly, cooperative and informative, but he made a very memorable remark to me: "When you are in politics, you often have to do things to other people which you wouldn't want them to do to you."

ARTHUR H. NETHERCOT

Professor

Northwestern University

Evanston, Ill.

Sir:

As my father's patient, Mr. Menon would come quite often to visit us in years past. He was always very kind to us, but his favorite trick was to lure us close to him with a friendly smile, hook our necks with his cane and draw us close, saying, "Now I've got you; what are you going to do about it?"

Of course, nothing could be done, and, as a result, I sympathize very strongly with Goa and the other objects of his colonialist policy; he's a very strong man.

BILL HITZIG

Harvard University

Cambridge, Mass.

TIME in Turkish

Sir:

Huerriyet, the Turkish newspaper with the largest circulation, has printed a translated summary of TIME's cover story "ThreeWay War in Algeria" [Jan. 26] on its front page, along with a picture of the Salan cover portrait.

This story, to my view, is one of the best prepared in TIME's history, and I have been a regular reader since my school days.

We Turks are closely interested in the Algerian situation. We should like to see this problem solved through peaceful negotiations. The blood that is spilt in Algeria causes us anxiety and bitter grief. This is the reason why we have reprinted your article.

NECATI ZINCIRKIRAN

Managing Editor, Huerriyet

Istanbul

Sir:

Despite the provocative conclusions you draw from half-digested facts concerning the S.A.O. in Algeria, history will accord much value to the peace, order and enlightenment brought to millions of Africans and Asians by the colonial policies of Britain, France and the U.S.

Far from deriving any practical benefit from their "free" status, the peoples of Indo-China, the Congo, India, and the Indies have reaped instead a harvest of civil strife, blood shed, and economic paralysis. The removal cf these lands from Western administration has led to Communism and anarchism.

Are we so blind to the reality of world conditions that we cannot perceive that none of these lands is yet ready for independence ? The great successes of the Western powers have not resulted from the present policies of defeatism and surrender being urged on us by such journals as yours. Let us hope the conscience of Metropolitan France and the West listens to the voice in the wilderness that is crying out in Algeria.

DONALD E. CLOSE

Lieutenant, U.S.A.

U.S. Forces

Korea

Sir:

Why shouldn't what has been good for Ireland, Palestine and prewar India be good for Algeria? The only sensible and humane solution to the worst problem in the world lies in partition.

P. SOLTANI

Teheran

Fractured Syntax

Sir:

Allow me to congratulate you for printing "Syntax Problem" [Jan. 26]. For years I have been trying to decide whether I had lost "Mr. President" or he had lost me.

Now I know.

MRS. LESTER G. BUSHMANN JR.

Fort Smith, Ark.

Sir:

Eisenhower and Kennedy might reply as Henry Ward Beecher once did to an English student.

After listening to one of Dr. Beecher's great sermons, the young critic told the minister at the church door that he had counted 24 grammatical errors in his talk.

Beecher responded, "Young man, if the English language gets in my way, she doesn't stand a ghost of a show."

J. HOMER RICHART

Denver

The Navy on the Mount

Sir:

In the Cinema section [Feb. 2], you state that Joe Rosenthal's photo shows six marines raising the Stars and Stripes on the summit of Mount Suribachi. I think you have done the U.S. Navy an injustice. One of the flag raisers, who survived the bloody battle and was medically discharged in 1945, was Pharmacist's Mate Second Class John Henry Bradley, U.S.N. He was serving as a hospital corpsman attached to a Marine combat unit. In view of the outstanding job these hospital corpsmen have done in the past, it seems only proper, from a Marine point of view, that one of them should have been represented in this heroic and memorable act.

PETER S. BECK

Captain, U.S.M.C.

Washington, D.C.

Ambassador's "W"

Sir:

Re Reader Dusenbury's letter [Jan. 26], Ambassador Galbraith is not the only one in our State Department whose usual position is the W. One may rest on knees and elbows with feet, hips and forearms upraised. This is a wrestler's defensive position. Haven't some of our ambassadors been in that position for some time?

The N is also becoming a familiar ambassadorial position. It can be achieved by sitting down (expecting help), with knees up and back hard against the wall. One can't move backward so must shift from right or center to left. Also, N stands for Neutral or Negative.

F. E. BOWER

Great Falls, Mont.

Sir:

What your reader does not conceive is the probability that Ambassador Galbraith has a long pair of feet to make a short last hand of a W.

JAFFERY SULEMAN KIYINGI

London

The German Synagogue

Sir:

I read with great interest your article on the rededication of the synagogue of Worms [Jan. 26].

I visited the site of this synagogue in the summer of 1958. At the time of my visit, reconstruction was supposed to have been started, but the site was completely desolate, with only a few colored, smashed stones to indicate that a building of great beauty had once stood there. The spot was obviously being used as a town dump. Upon my return to the U.S., I wrote the Jewish Conference on War Claims about this great injustice. They replied that they would look into the matter.

It is gratifying to learn that the building has finally been rebuilt. It seems that the conscience of the Bonn government still needs a great deal of prodding.

PAUL GREENWALD

North Bergen, N.J.

Forever Amber

Sir:

Congratulations to the Automobile Manufacturers Association on the decision to use amber-colored front turn signals [Jan. 26].

Still unsolved, however, is the problem of sometimes deadly glare from the white headlights of oncoming cars. A workable solution might be found by using amber-colored headlights here as well. This is done in France.

Amber headlights would be a far less costly solution than the polarized headlights and windshields that some people have proposed.

EUGENE LOLLIN

University of California

Berkeley, Calif.

Sir:

In regard to the amber flashing turn signal on the front of new U.S. cars, why not also eliminate the confusion of all red lights in the rear? It is sometimes difficult to tell if the driver ahead is signaling or just pumping his brakes. I think many rear-end collisions would be eliminated if the colors were different. What about green for the "running" lights, amber for the turn signal, and red for the stop light?

ALFRED J. GERDEL JR.

Hutchinson, Kans.

The Lethal Drink

Sir:

Re President Kennedy endorsing milk [Feb. 2]--modern research has established conclusively that milk, when taken internally by adults, is lethal. The only way it can be safely ingested and endured is mixed with a strong dose of brandy, a little sugar and nutmeg. Warming the milk first helps banish the taste and dim the memory.

HENRI TEMIANKA

Los Angeles

Sir:

If one puts a spoonful of honey into a glass of milk, it makes a much tastier drink. I have named it a "Canaan Cocktail," for, according to the Bible, the land of Canaan is flowing with milk and honey.

My use of the term cocktail does not change my status as a lifelong teetotaler.

A. A. SAUNDERS

Canaan, Conn.

Sir:

So President Kennedy has espoused the cause of milk, and even endorsed it as the standard White House beverage. Shades of President Grant.

On behalf of the bourbon drinkers of America I protest. Is this spiritless, chalky liquid more worthy of the presidential accolade than my beloved bourbon--or wine, or beer, or even sake?

Do men toast their sweethearts with this bland fluid? Does the Government christen its boats with a magnum of milk? Has any true American male, homeward bound, ever tarried in his favorite bar to down a beaker of milk on the rocks ? Have you ever tried to warm the frigid inner man with a cool goblet of milk--homogenized or otherwise?

Mr. Kennedy, you have done a disservice to bourbonites; and to sub-bourbonites.

B. F. FOSTER

White Plains, N.Y.

Mighty Wurlitzer Sir:

"Bigger Than Stereo" [Feb. 2] was read with much interest here at the Ohio School for the Deaf. Five young men from the school assisted me in moving a six-rank Wurlitzer theater organ to my home. One student from Gallaudet College (the world's only institution of higher learning for the deaf) assisted in the electrical and mechanical reconditioning of the instrument.

Most persons who are deaf can hear something so mighty as the Mighty Wurlitzer. The instrument is an endless source of pleasure and fascination for us all.

W. SCOTT McKEON

Teacher

Columbus

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