Impatience

Sirs:

Every drop of Irish blood in my veins makes me proud of Yugoslavia and Greece.

With damned little patience I am awaiting the day when Ireland and the United States begin to do their duty to themselves; when the Irish grant naval bases to England and when we realize that we must deliver the weapons to those who are fighting our battles. . . .

EDWARD CAFFERY New York City

Sirs:

It's an economic war and I don't see why it should concern us.

Furthermore, all the mayors in the country should order their police to let holdups, kidnapping and plundering go unmolested. It's all economics, I tell you, and we are paying taxes to protect only the rich.

All we need to do is build a strong protective wall all around this hemisphere and let the rest of the economic world go to pot. I repeat, it's an economic war and. . . . Aw! You know what I mean.

JOHN P. NIELSEN Yale University New Haven, Conn.

Sirs:

In the American way of life, one citizen doesn't try to force his personal way of life down another citizen's throat. I hope that this nation will not try to force its way of life on other nations under pretext of defending it, instead of letting other nations come around to it if they will.

R. H. GRAFTON

New York City

Sirs:

Please discontinue my subscription. . . . Any editorial policy that opposes naval rearmament does not merit my support.

MRS. H. H. SANGER Grosse Pointe, Mich.

> Where Reader Sanger got the idea that TIME opposes full and fast naval rearmament, is a riddle.--ED.

Sirs:

... I would like to ask what the big-mouthed Johnny Bulls ever did. Long ago they let one of their colonies, U.S.A., take them into camp. They [Johnny Bulls] moan at the Germans for taking land and yet they stole half of the world. Oh, that was splendid! The Germans at least proved they were men enough to take something. They don't sneak around with their sly tongues and steal something by the use of big mouths. Them and their big mouths and umbrellas. . . .

As for the Lend-Lease Bill, why not just invite the Johnny Bulls to take over our country ? . . .

JOHN BELLITT Niles, Ohio

Scotty's Palace

Sirs:

TIME is still "curt, clear," but in reference to Death Valley Scotty (March 24) by no means "complete." Banker Gerard has no reason to hope for "a cut on the $1.10 Scotty took from tourists who came to gaze at his fancy desert residence."

Scotty does not own, never has owned, and never will own that residence. It has always been the plaything of Albert M. Johnson, and is still subject to purchase by the Government under the terms of the land patent granted to Johnson. . . .

C. B. GLASSCOCK Laguna Beach, Calif.

> Tall, white-haired Albert M. Johnson, owner of Scotty's desert palace, is a codefendant in the suit which Banker Julian Gerard brought because he never got any returns from a $10.000 grubstake which he handed to Scotty

38 years ago. So Gerard's hope for a cut of the tourist fees is plausible.

Albert Johnson--a wealthy, retired insurance man who made a stake in Missouri zinc before the turn of the century--says he has "lent" Scotty a great deal of money over the years since they met in 1904. "He repays me," Mr. Johnson explains, "in laughs." Mr. Johnson is reputed to be quite a kidder himself.--ED.

Instructive

Sirs:

I have already mailed my subscription to your new airmail edition for Latin America, and wish both to thank you for and congratulate you on your splendid, and I fear, altruistic, initiative.

For many years TIME has been one of my most prized luxuries. Now you make it a necessity of life.

As a Britisher I have often had to undergo a deflation of inherited ego when reading in TIME about things we rather prefer not to know about, but I have to admit that the underlying friendliness of your criticisms of our failures and jibes at our weaknesses have rendered them instructive rather than hurtful. . . .

E. J. CAMPBELL Santiago, Chile

> TIME-by-air has been received with such cheers from subscribers and advertisers alike that what started out as an altruistic venture now has a good chance of breaking even, perhaps making a small profit.--ED.

"Internal Opposition"

Sirs:

Just how much longer do you think that the American people and their Government are going to tolerate this strike situation and acts of violence? . . .

In fact it looks as if the fifth column is lying low to let the C.I.O. take over.

I suggest that the C.I.O. might better be renamed the Committee for Internal Opposition.

M. E. FANSLER

Catonsville, Md.

Sirs: In reference to your article, "Food: A Weapon," TIME, March 31. Leaving Hitler out of this, if possible--what if the farmers of the U.S. should go on a strike for highert wages, shorter working hours, two weeks vacation with pay ? Oh ! My goodness! What am I saying! JAMES E. ALLISON Asheville, N.C.

Sirs: "America is a great nation, and Americans are a great people"--we hear this often from our leaders and from other countries. But sometimes it is hard to back this proud statement with conviction based on performance.

Today, reading of the strikes at Allis-Chalmers, Aluminum Co. of America, and others, one wonders where are those evidences of greatness ? . . .

We all know that Government control must come--we can earn our reputation of greatness all over again by admitting it now.

. . . Let the educated and dignified doubter apply the rules he learned as a child playing the most elementary team game: for any progress peacetime or otherwise, confidence must be with the captain. . . .

For obvious reasons, please withhold my name if this letter is printed.

PRIVATE P: P:

Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico "Oh, To Be in England" Sirs: I wonder if you have yet heard the story about the English schoolteacher who was testing the children on English poetry.

One of the questions was: Who was it who said, "Oh, to be in England"? A small cockney voice piped up: " 'itler said it." Of course TIME knows but possibly some of its readers may not recognize the quotation as the first line of Robert Browning's poem, Home-Thoughts From Abroad. . . .

JENNIE COE MOORE

St. Petersburg, Fla.

Honorific Tea

Sirs:

TIME, March 24: the article on Japan, "Pain in the Nekku," errs in saying Chee is Japanese for tea. It is Cha. Always preceded by the honorific "O." . . .

JACK FRERET

Chief Photographer, U.S. Navy Lakehurst, N.J.

> Right is Reader Freret; Cha is the word for tea. The honorific "O" (used in talking but not in writing) is applied to almost everything in "good society," but seemly Japanese learn not to overdo it to the point of comedy.--ED.

Rockers in Turkey

Sirs:

In your issue of March 24 regarding Istan-sued in mimeograph form the next day to the 55 officers and 645 men of the British cruiser Orion, informing them just what happened while they were at action stations and unable to see. The Orion is commanded by Captain Geoffrey Robert Bensly Back, who issued the account, and is the flagship of Acting Vice Admiral Henry Daniel Pridham-Wippell, second in command of the Mediterranean fleet. This ship has been many times in U.S. waters. . . In the battle ... it was one of four cruisers which . . . exposed themselves to the fire of an Italian battleship in order that the British heavy forces might make contact. After the account was issued, it was verified that three Italian cruisers had been certainly sunk. .

J. S. MARTIN

Alexandria, Egypt

"There was a new moon on Thursday, and although it was close to the end of the month, someone on the ship must have had some money in his pocket to turn over. At any rate our luck held yesterday.

"It is some months now since the fleet air arm dealt the Italian Fleet such a useful blow at Taranto and sank one, damaged two battleships, and it has been in mind for some time that they might well venture forth once again, having had ample time to effect repairs.

"On Thursday some Italian cruisers were located at sea by our air reconnaissance, but we did not of course know precisely what game they were up to. It might have been an attack on Malta, an attack on our convoys, an attack on Crete, or one of several other possibilities. . .

"At about eight o'clock smoke was sighted, and in due course three Italian cruisers and some destroyers were made out. Two, if not all three of these, were 8-in. gun cruisers, and our game was if possible to lure them, together with their supporting force, on to our battle fleet, then a considerable distance away. During this phase they were firing steadily but not at a high rate of fire, and at first they were getting a number of salvos over as well as short. We made a few small turns towards and away to throw out their gunfire, and after a time held a position just out of their range, though they gained bearing on us slightly.

"Then they turned in succession right round on their tracks. We turned so as not to lose touch and worked round to a position astern of them, following them up.

"After some time of this their support in the form of a Littorio Class battleship appeared to starboard, steaming at high speed toward us. We turned away and increased speed, and she opened fire at a range of about 30,000 yards before we had completed our turn. We were left in no doubt as to which ship was their target. . . .

"One or two salvos were uncommonly close, as you may have noticed, though I am told that some of those between decks mistook them for our own guns firing, a good example of the proverb 'When ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.'

"When the smoke from the rest of the squadron covered us, the enemy shifted his fire to the Gloucester which was the weather ship, and she had an uncomfortable time but was not hit. The destroyers tried to get across to cover her with smoke, but at the speed we were going (31 knots) had a job to get there, and before they did a torpedo striking force from the Formidable, which we had seen before we sighted the battleship, attacked the enemy and his attention was well and truly distracted. He ceased fire and turned to avoid the torpedoes, and we drew out of range. . . .

"As dusk fell we were for a time just able to make out what appeared to be three enemy cruisers, but they faded out again as it grew darker. Then a Brock's benefit [Brock is the biggest British fireworks maker] broke out ahead as the torpedo bombers' attack develbul's Hotel Pera Palace, you say it was full of "Victorian rocking chairs." Your picture shows no rocking chairs. Is it not correct that rocking chairs are an American institution only?

MRS. G. Ross REDE

Lake Luzerne, N.Y.

> Most of the Hotel Pera Palace's rocking chairs are upstairs in the rooms. One TIME editor on a visit to Istanbul counted no less than 14 rockers in the sitting room of his two-room suite. Though they cannot show documentary proof, furniture historians confidently believe that rockers originated in North America, since they were common there in the 18th Century but unknown in Europe before the 19th.--ED.

Positively

Sirs:

It was interestin enough to me, to see one of the most patriotic piece of the Political Brasilian's history "Eighteen of the Fort," published in TIME, Jan. 27.

The tale of these 18 heroes of whom Brasil is proud, was told in TIME with great perfection, without mistakes.

Positively, Siqueira Campos, Otavio Correa and the rest of their comrades, became Avenida Atlantica in Copacabana, famous in Brasilian people's heart.

Mr. Ed. anything else than that, proud me to know Colonel Eduardo Gomes (one of the 18, still alive) was chosen by Getulio Vargas, our great President, in order to be one of the chieves of the Brasilian's aviation.

I know Brasil has thousand of men like them.

We, Brasilian, see the same heroe's genius in President Vargas, our great conducter, who will get Brasil shortly to the top of the Political world's history.

LUIZ AUGUSTO MONTEIRO Aracaju, Brasil

Taxes

Sirs:

In the March 24 issue of TIME is listed the old comparison of U.S. income taxes with those of England.

Instead of doing that each time, why not go into the matter further and show that in many U.S. States the income-tax payers dish out as much as the English do. You don't seem to recall that Iowa and some other States have an income tax. In Iowa the Federal income tax is just chicken feed compared to the State tax, at least in the lower brackets.

I don't believe that the various shires in England have an income tax to pile on top of the Government tax. Do you?

J. H. BELL Cedar Rapids, Iowa

> TIME did not print the figures for the sake of comparing tax burdens, but to show what all-out production for war may mean to future U.S. income taxes, as judged by the present British scale. Britain has many luxury taxes similar to those in the U.S. but fewer "hidden" taxes, and no local income taxes. In fact, in 1938, the last full year of peace, a smaller part of the British national income went for all taxes (21.7%) than in the U.S. (22.4%), --ED.

The Battle of the Ionian Sea

Sirs:

I am sending you the account of the Battle of Cape Matapan, March 28, which was is-oped. The Italians were using colored tracers and plenty of them. It went on for quite a long time and eventually died out and we could see no more. . . .

"In case any of you may wonder why we did not on that occasion go in ourselves, I should perhaps mention that it is no part of a cruiser's job deliberately to seek action with a battleship at night. Incidentally, the reason was demonstrated in our favor a little later when our own battle fleet bumped into two enemy 8-inch gun cruisers and promptly crippled both. This provided another display of fireworks astern. At this time the events of the night after this are not yet wholly clear, but it is clear that both these cruisers were finished off by our destroyers. . . ."

Human Fortunes

Sirs:

About 50 years ago Sir "Jock" Broughton [TIME, March 24] and I were boys together. Though not wholly together since he was the son of a baronet and I only the son of his father's gamekeeper. Many times subsequently I might have wanted to exchange places with Jock. But now he is charged with murder and I do not even want to kill anyone, except, of course, the mad dogs of Berlin.

All of which goes to show that time has a way of equalizing human fortunes, though those obsessed with the urge to be always trying to right wrongs seem to overlook the fact. . . .

FRED W. BIRKS Huron, S. Dak.

Tops & Bottoms

Sirs:

The cut of the Japanese Minister to Australia [TIME, March 31] clearly shows the extent to which the Japanese have aped American customs. Minister Kawai's rumpled pajama "tops" and neatly pressed "bottoms"

[see cut] show him in accord with the countless Americans who believe pajama trousers were intended for use only in case of fire or photographers. . . .

ROBERT L. HILL

Cincinnati, Ohio

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