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The incident you questioned was the one item in my book which I had accepted, without further checking, from a story in TIME, the weekly newsmagazine. It appeared in the issue of March 10, 1952 (p. 25). Was there a more responsible source?
FRANK GIBNEY New York City
¶Who could ask for anything more?
—ED.
White Black Silver Spain
Sir:
Your article on the joyless Spanish painters and sculptors, whose colors—black and white, dull greys, somber browns, putty greens you call the colors of joylessness, fails completely in trying to link their work to a Hollywood version of sunny and passionate Spain.
The sadness of Spain and the monotony of the Spanish coloring is admirably reflected in the work of Tàpies, Millares, Saura, Rivera, Chillida, as it was in the work of their forefathers Goya, El Greco, Juan Gris, Julio Gonzalez, and still is in some of the best work of Picasso.
As Gertrude Stein put it: "One must never forget that Spain is not like other southern countries, it is not colorful, all the colors in Spain are white black silver or gold, there is no red or green, not at all."
JORGE NEWBERY St. Louis
Bongo on the Congo
Sir:
May I congratulate the American Government for reserving such a splendid reception to Mr. Lumumba. Humanity is indeed no idle word any more in the U.S.; for a Negro, thief and man responsible for the violation of hundreds of women is hailed with all honors.
ETIENNE VERHOFSTADT Antwerp, Belgium
Sir:
Belgium messed up her attempt at Empire. After systematically looting that unhappy land for 80 years was she honestly surprised at the outburst of hatred against her? To commit the indecency of shamelessly abandoning the Congo to chaos only to return a week later in the guise of cop appears to me typical of the hypocrisy that now seems the accepted hallmark of international diplomacy. I am not impressed.
PETER C. OBI Ikeja, Nigeria
Sir:
I wish to extend my congratulations to the U.S. Government for being so influential in persuading the United Nations to send troops to the Congo during a critical situation. I also wish that I could congratulate it for doing the same when the whites were shooting down the blacks.
JAMES OWENS Chicago