Letters, Jun. 9, 1941

Wodehouse in Prison

Sirs:

Is there any possible way I could send a letter to Mr. P. G. Wodehouse?

Before his capture, I enjoyed a very pleasant correspondence with Mr. Wodehouse. In his last letter, written to me, which was mailed shortly before the Germans seized him, Mr. Wodehouse informed me that he was sure the Germans would not penetrate Le Touquet. . . .

E. W. FLACCUS

Tucson, Ariz.

> Author Wodehouse is in prison at Tost, Upper Silesia, and mail should reach him if addressed to: Gefangenennummer: 796 Lager-Bezeichnung: Offag VIII D Deutschland (Allemagne).

Last January TIME’S Berlin correspondent, accompanied by German officials, visited Wodehouse in prison, took him pipe tobacco, a pipe, cigarets, candy, soap, mystery books. They found him well fed (“bloated” was his word), having received Red Cross parcels and cheese, butter and jam from Denmark. He had “a sort of private room” in a house at one end of the camp where he was writing a serial for the Saturday Evening Post which he has tentatively titled Money in the Bank. His main worry was that he had not paid his U.S. income taxes. When he was told that Ernest Hemingway had a new book out about the Spanish Civil War, he observed scornfully: “I can’t imagine a duller subject.”—ED.

For One, Tired

Sirs:

For one, I’m getting tired of the incessant call for “leadership.” We’re just like any other people in the world. When we deserve something, we get it. Remember the frogs? Not the French, though the cases are somewhat parallel, but the frogs who turned from King Log to King Stork. It seems to me that leaders are much like wives. Sometimes you get a good one and sometimes you don’t. Germany has the kind of leadership she wants. So have we (God help us). England had the kind she wanted in Chamberlain and now she has what she wants in Churchill. The people, not the times, are pregnant and produce their man. The times simply perform the male function. . . .

LAMBERT FAIRCHILD New York City

TIME to Camp

Sirs:

Just a word of appreciation for the publication of Mrs. Louise Redfield Peattie’s appeal [to TIME subscribers to send their copies, after reading them, to Army camps] which has had a grand and rapid response here at Fort Dix. The soldiers appreciate especially the fact that they are getting current editions. . . .

GEORGE J. CRONE

Chaplain, Major

44th Division tort Dix, NJ.

Sirs:

I would like you to send two subscriptions (or four six-month ones) to an Army camp for me—whichever one you think, because of its location, offers its men least opportunity for outside recreation.

My own son, ensign on the U.S.S. California, has been kept in touch with the world by TIME ever since he became a V-7 last July.

Check for $10.00 enclosed.

MRS. C. H. HARING

Cambridge, Mass.

— TIME thanks Mrs. Haring for her donation, has sent two one-year subscriptions to Fort Lewis, Wash., whence word from the commanding officer about the demand for TIME prompted Mrs. Peattie’s letter.—ED.

Abstract, Glittering

Sirs:

This letter is in answer to Reader Mary Littlejohn [TIME, May 19] and all other hysterical idealists who urge our entrance into war. We should like to have these people show us how war can bring about, to quote from Miss Littlejohn’s letter, “the highest good, the betterment of mankind, the ideal of brotherly love. . . .”

We are tired of abstract terms and glittering generalities. . . .

JOE WALL

BALLARD HAYWORTH

Grinnell College

Grinnell, Iowa

Sirs:

I am the guy that would like to help England regardless, and go all the way. I have been an airplane pilot and still am, but for various reasons (money being the main one) lost my license after I had worked my time up to 200 hours, and if I can promote the money to get back in line my intentions are to get in the R.A.F. as soon as I can. . . .

JEFF KING

Comanche, Tex.

Sirs: Your superb reporting of the news in wobbly Washington and of our procrastinating President is surely disquieting. . . .

ERNEST DUDLEY CHASE

Winchester, Mass.

Sirs:

After reading in TIME, May 19 regarding the blundering War Cabinet of the U.S., I have only one query: “Does President Roosevelt read TIME?”

WILLIAM BLACK

The University of North Dakota

Grand Forks, N.Dak.

> Yes.—ED.

Fresh Bread

Sirs:

Receiving TlME-by-Air is like eating fresh bread again after years of diet of stale bread. . . .

WALDEMAR F. LEE Pro Arte Musical de Puerto Rico San Juan, P.R.

Sirs:

Orchids for TIME-by-Air! Even in this out-of-the-way mining camp we get our TIME now on the Saturday before the issue date.

VINCENT J. WHITE Pato Consolidated Gold Dredging, Ltd. Pato, Colombia

Sirs:

I could not miss this first air mail after I receive the first edition of the Air Express TIME to manifest to you my appreciation for your wonderful idea of sending TIME via Air Express.

I appreciate TIME exceedingly and read it from cover to cover and the only thing that used to prevent me to appreciate it 100% was to read war news after defeats being converted into victories or vice versa, because of the delay in receiving the magazine. . .

O. ELOY SANTOS Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Sirs:

. . . TIME would do a thing like this. We fellows down here in the American Club fairly mangle your airmailed copy, currently flown down. . . . Viva TIME Incorporated! IVAN A. KURYLA American Club Buenos Aires, Argentina Sirs: Congratulations and many thanks! May 5, 1941 issue was on my desk when I arrived in the morning May 8. It was mailed from Rio.

I was proud of TIME and really thrilled when I stopped to realize that TIME readers in the States and TIME readers in Brazil (5,000 miles away) were carrying the same issue of the magazine in their pockets at the same time. Good work! FRANK BEVAN

National City Bank of New York Saó Paulo, Brazil

Amateurs at Rollins

Sirs:

In TIME, April 7, under Sport, you carried an article concerning Miss Pauline Betz, in which you said: “In part payment for her scholarship [at Rollins College] she helps teach tennis. . . .”

The literal interpretation of your article would indicate that Miss Betz was violating the amateur regulations of the U.S.L.T.A. . . .

Inasmuch as there are many followers of amateur tennis who may find it difficult to reconcile your statement with Miss Betz’s activities in amateur tennis, I believe it only right that you, correct this erroneous impression.

CHARLES S. GARLAND Chairman, Amateur Rule Committee United States Lawn Tennis Association Baltimore, Md.

> TIME was misled by an unclearly worded report from a correspondent. Pauline (“Bobbie”) Betz, national women’s indoor champion, and other stars at Rollins, including Dorothy Bundy and Jack Kramer, do some work in return for their scholarships, but that work does not include tennis instruction, so their amateur status is intact.—ED.

Youngest?

Sirs:

I think I am your youngest reader. I enjoy your newsmagazine very much, especially Letters to the Editor. I am ten years old.

ANN GARDNER

Huntington Woods, Mich.

Ranee Righted

Sirs:

In your article in TIME, April 21, entitled “Sarawak,” you attribute to me the authorship of a book entitled Relations and Complications, which you say reveals the details of the Raja’s courtship of me and our marital relations. I did not write the book. It was authored by the wife of the Tuan Muda (Captain Bertram Brooke), my brother-in-law, and it does not contain any details of the type you refer to.

RANEE OF SARAWAK New York City > TIME’S apologies to Sarawak’s Ranee for attributing to her the authorship of H.H. the Dayang Muda’s innocuous Relations and Complications.—ED.