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You describe me as "a diplomat who practiced duplicity." You surely are not so naive as to think that only German diplomats practiced what you call "duplicity," and that the American, British, French, Russian, Italian, Chinese, etc., diplomats were simon-pure characters who never even told the conventional ''white lie" in furtherance of their country's policies? As I said before, you are certainly free to express whatever opinion you ma>' have about me and my political life. But I think it is below TIME's standards to depart from factual truth as your reviewer has done.
FRANZ VON PAPEN Obersasbach, Baden, Germany
¶ Reader von Papen has a talent for being misunderstood, 1) Uni.il he was expelled from the U.S. as military attache in 1916, his duty—as he saw it—was "to delay the delivery of war material to the enemy." That the sabotage in the Black Tom and Kingsland explosions was organized by the German government was decided (after 20 years of international court wrangling) by a Mixed Claims Commission, finally composed only of Americans because the German member withdrew. Reason: it was clear that not only sabotage but fraud on Germany's part had been proved to the commission's satisfaction. 2) The spy (caught in 1915 by the British on his way from the U.S. to Germany) was the late Captain Franz von Rintelen. The late Sir Reginald Hall, former Chief of British Naval Intelligence, told Von Rintelen: "Von Papen wired and wirelessed your name so often to Berlin in good, honest, straightforward German that he just played you into our hands. It seemed almost deliberate." 3) In acquitting Von Papen on specific charges, the Nurnberg Tribunal stated: "The evidence leaves no doubt that
Von Papen's primary purpose . . . was to undermine the Schuschnigg regime and strengthen the Austrian Nazis for the purpose of bringing about Anschluss. To carry through this plan, he engaged in both intrigue and bullying . . ."—ED.
The Old School
Sir:
Re Kester Avenue School [Van Nuys, Calif.] in your Sept. 7 issue: If an architect puts all his heart and vision into a project, it does not get obsolete, old and discarded. It lasts as a good investment. This is a comfort to me . . . Your lovely color picture shows not the Kester school [see cut], which I designed most recently, but the Bell school [in Bell, Calif.] ... I take it as an honor that you put it together with all the fine projects of latest vintage.
RICHARD NEUTRA Los Angeles
Crucial Case
Sir:
Re the Aug. 31 story, "A Crucial Case of Murder," and ex-Sergeant Bob Toth: The plight of Toth must be practically without precedent in the U.S., and it may be well to replace the reading of the Articles of War to the military men with a reading of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. That military men had the audacity to take Mr. Toth from his place of employment without due course of law and then to "kidnap" him with travel outside of his native land is beyond the comprehension of any law-abiding, moral citizen.