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Sir: Your cover piece on confessions was an able and informative account of a tormentingly difficult problem. You seem, however, to make one doubtful assumption: that it is up to the Supreme Court alone to solve the problem. The justices have the responsibility to determine what the Constitution means by the due process of law it guarantees to criminal suspects. But some would think it an unhappy role for the court to read out of that vague constitutional phrase a detailed code of criminal procedure regulating every police practice. That is what the court has apparently been asked to do in the pending cases that you so compellingly described. It seems particularly doubtful that the responsibility for devising fair and effective criminal processes should rest entirely on the court at a time when, as now, so many other expert bodies are grappling with the confession dilemma. The American Law Institute, the President's Crime Commission and other groups are trying to provide the information needed for intelligent decision. There surely is a strong argument against the freezing of any particular formula into the Constitution before this process of research and debate has time to work.
ANTHONY LEWIS Chief London Correspondent The New York Times London
Sir: Few would question that TIME'S story was as factual, unbiased, fair, objective, truthful, unopinionated and impartial as any brief uttered by the mouthpieces and stooges for underworld characters. Even so, I'll bet some of the writer's best friends are policemen.
EDWARD J. ALLEN Chief of Police Santa Ana, Calif.
Guidelines
Sir: Thumbs up to TIME in its wrestling match with the soon-to-be-unlimited number of travel guide authors [April 29]: two points for taking down those foolish ones plotting Europe on a shoestring; two points for reversing those who claim London is dead; and the ultimate five points for pinning my father and his colleagues on the count that there is no guidebook for second-time travelers. But let it be noted that a guide writer thrives on those experienced travelers who do not need his product—for I know of at least one such author who diligently checks out every one of the scores of tips that come to his desk daily.
DODGE T. FIELDING Hamilton College Clinton, N.Y.
Sir: Where is your spirit of adventure? The Mark Twain of today doesn't just follow that crowd to Maxim's or the London Hilton; he makes like Europeans themselves, packs his camping gear in the car, and voila! the whole family are enjoying themselves just as they did back in Yosemite National Park, only now it's less crowded. There are thousands of excellent camp sites from the fjords of Norway to the oases of Morocco, from Ireland to Turkey, in the biggest cities and the smallest villages; and there are many camping guides in English. Between camp sites there is a wealth of scenery and color. And who's to stop a couple from putting on their fancy clothes in camp and shooting off to the local night life?
PETER TANGUAY, M.D. Derby, England
Outside Looking In