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I didn't much care how important Albania's oil is to Mussolini until I noticed widely divergent estimates expressed in TIME and in TIME'S sister magazine, LIFE. Now I'm really curious.
TIME, April 17: "Albanian oil is at best of second-rate importance, probably not capable of supplying more than a tenth of Italy's peacetime needs."
LIFE, April 17: "Albania's oil wells have been developed nearly to the point of satisfying Italy's oil requirements."
C. W. SMITH
Detroit, Mich.
-Tsk! Tsk! Reader Smith ought to know better than interfere in a family quarrel. Italy's present imports of oil are around 2,000,000 tons a year. This does not include imports for naval and military use (estimated at another 1,000,000 tons) which do not pass through the customs. The Italian oil company which has the exploitation of Albania's oil resources produced 120,-ooo tons last year, and hopes (perhaps over-sanguinely) to produce 300,000 tons in 1940.—ED.
Younger Brother
Sirs:
When you call me the "younger brother of Author Christopher Morley" [TIME, April 24] I feel somewhat the same way that your editors might if TIME were called the younger brother of The Literary Digest.
I might also add that it is not in accord with TIME'S reputation for accuracy to refer to "Republican Publisher Eugene Meyer." The Post calls itself an independent newspaper and those who work for it, as well as most of its readers, believe that it fully merits the adjective.
FELIX MORLEY
Editor
Washington Post Washington, D. C.
Not Even a Bus
Sirs:
Years ago, in the old Savile Club in London, I heard the late Poet Laureate Dr. Bridges quote your limerick [TIME, March 27, April 24] in what seems a more perfect form —as a spoof on Berkeley, which of course it was.
There was a young man who said, "God, You must find it exceedingly odd That a tree, as a tree, Simply ceases to be When there's no one about in the Quad."
And do your readers know Oxford's other metaphysical classic?
There was a young man who said, "Damn! I have recently learned that I am But a creature that moves In predestinate grooves. I'm not even a bus. I'm a tram."
JOHN L. BALDERSTON Beverly Hills, Calif.
Average Golfer
Sirs:
In re: article on p. 58, TIME, April 24, on proposal of professional golfers to reduce the standard golf par, why not give some thought to the Average Golfer ?
The Average Golfer shoots 85 to 100; is tickled pink if he pars two or three holes in an afternoon; he is the mainstay of all golf (Continued on p. 8) clubs and courses; he is generally a sucker for some professional, and without his support the professional golfer would disappear like the famous snowball in Hades.
If it is desired to set a new lower par for the sharpshooters, well and good, but do not take all the joy away from the Average Golfer.
H. C. DODGE, M.D. Veterans Administration Fort Bayard, N. Mex.
Suggestion Sirs: