Letters, Jun. 21, 1954

(2 of 3)

TIME'S Andre Laguerre's analysis of Britain's current foreign policy [May 31] seems more like what America would like to believe than a true explanation of the facts motivating Britain's stand. To say that Churchill is "old and feeble," his states of mind are "fitful," and that he borders on ineffectiveness, is poppycock . . . Laguerre's statement, "It was the Tories, not the Socialists, who advocated appeasement of Hitler," is a wonder. Does he mean the Socialists were for vigorous action at the time? Then, as now, the Socialists opposed rearmament and were, if anything, more of a peace party than the Tories ... He ascribes [British] foreign policy to Churchill's senility, Eden's obsessive desire for the prime ministership, and the appeasement elements of the Tory Party. The truth is that British foreign policy is as it is for the same reason American foreign policy was isolationist in 1939: the vast preponderance of the people want it that way . . .

W. J. REED Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

Sir: Your article on Anthony Eden, like Punch's cartoon, is grotesquely unfair . . .

Are you really advocating a third world war as the only way out of our present difficulties —and if not, what other way do you suggest except Eden's?

CYRIL OSBORNE, M.P. House of Commons London

Sir:

... I hope Sir Winston Churchill calls your London Bureau chief in and gives him a piece of his "old and feeble" mind . . .

N. J. RAINBOW Toronto

Pure Slurvian

Sir: TIME, May 24, reports that the BBC is concerned with the enunciation of some of its announcers. They needn't be. Our own Toast of the Town, Ed Sullivan, has used nothing but pure Slurvian for years. As our leading exponent of Slurvian, Sullivan surpasses anything ever dreamed of by the BBC.

To wit: MERKRIES and LINKS—two cars advertised on his program.

AWYENCE—the people who attend his show.

LAZENJELM—complimentary greeting to the awyence.

YERP—the continent east of us.

NITESTAYS OF MERKA—our country.

J. K. SHALLENBERGER Long Beach, Calif.

On a South African Farm

Sir: ... Re "The Flogging of a Kaffir" [TIME, June 7]: Had your correspondent used a fraction of the diligence he showed in tracking down and recording an anonymous "Boer farmer's" comments on the case, he could not have failed to mention in passing the countless numbers of South Africans—both "Boer farmers" and others—in whom the crime aroused the same shocked views as those held by the trial judge.

CONRAD NORTON Assistant Director Union of South Africa Government Information Office New York City

To Tell the (Ugh!) Truth

Sir:

After watching, listening to and reading about the McCarthy-Stevens hearings, I have come to the conclusion that the only way we will ever get at the truth is to place one of Li'l Abner's "Bald Iggles" in a conspicuous place, where each witness must stare into those "sad, reproachful eyes that pierce souls."

MARY GARDEN Elmira, N.Y.

—I For Al Capp's version of the Slobbo-vian lie detector, see cut.—ED.

Physicist in the Garden Sir: