About the Tea-Fed Tiger
Sir:
If Krishna Menon (Feb. 2) told your reporter that Theosophy did not appeal to him, this is a complete misstatement of fact. He was an active Theosophist until he was well into his 30s. For some time he was an active organizer and propagandist for the Theosophical Society, as well as a propagandist for Mrs. Besant's Home Rule Party, which was opposed to Gandhi's and young Nehru's party in its basic policy of achieving independence through constitutional reform.
When Krishna Menon perceived that Mrs. Besant's movement was dying, as she herself was, he went over to the more extreme, aggressive Gandhi group. It was as a leader of one of Mrs. Besant's troops of Indian Boy Scouts that he got his start in public life as a Boy Scout commissioner.
My interviews with Krishna Menon (I am writing a biography of Mrs. Besant) confirm Honor Balfour's minority impression. He was friendly, cooperative and informative, but he made a very memorable remark to me: "When you are in politics, you often have to do things to other people which you wouldn't want them to do to you."
ARTHUR H. NETHERCOT
Professor
Northwestern University
Evanston, Ill.
Sir:
As my father's patient, Mr. Menon would come quite often to visit us in years past. He was always very kind to us, but his favorite trick was to lure us close to him with a friendly smile, hook our necks with his cane and draw us close, saying, "Now I've got you; what are you going to do about it?"
Of course, nothing could be done, and, as a result, I sympathize very strongly with Goa and the other objects of his colonialist policy; he's a very strong man.
BILL HITZIG
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass.
TIME in Turkish
Sir:
Hürriyet, the Turkish newspaper with the largest circulation, has printed a translated summary of TIME's cover story "ThreeWay War in Algeria" [Jan. 26] on its front page, along with a picture of the Salan cover portrait.
This story, to my view, is one of the best prepared in TIME's history, and I have been a regular reader since my school days.
We Turks are closely interested in the Algerian situation. We should like to see this problem solved through peaceful negotiations. The blood that is spilt in Algeria causes us anxiety and bitter grief. This is the reason why we have reprinted your article.
NECATI ZINCIRKIRAN
Managing Editor, Hürriyet
Istanbul
Sir:
Despite the provocative conclusions you draw from half-digested facts concerning the S.A.O. in Algeria, history will accord much value to the peace, order and enlightenment brought to millions of Africans and Asians by the colonial policies of Britain, France and the U.S.
Far from deriving any practical benefit from their "free" status, the peoples of Indo-China, the Congo, India, and the Indies have reaped instead a harvest of civil strife, blood shed, and economic paralysis. The removal cf these lands from Western administration has led to Communism and anarchism.