Free French in Tahiti

Sirs:

Please accept my thanks for the very kind notice of Botany Bay which appeared in TIME for Jan. 19. ...

I enclose a small picture of the De Gaulle Tahitian boys parading on the Main Street of Papeete (see cut). Those lads will fight when the time comes. . . .

CHARLES NORDHOFF Santa Barbara, Calif.

"Not Only of Bread . . ."

Sirs:

Don Quixote and Sancho met again, this time at Rio de Janeiro. Mr. Welles brought to the Conference the message of figures, 100-c- in each dollar, 60,000 planes and 45,000 tanks (still on paper), tin and rubber. When he finished reading his speech, the delegates very politely applauded for few seconds, not very enthusiastically. Groton and Harvard in a preach-like manner did not do so good. Sancho had spoken. He had not spoken to the heart.

Then Dr. Ezequiel Padilla of Mexico spoke. He was not reading his speech. He was speaking words from his heart. . . . He spoke of the men of Wake Island, of one America, of a common heritage. . . . When he finished . . . people applauded frenetically, kept on doing it, thrilled, enthusiastically, one man, one soul, one purpose. Don Quixote had again taught Sancho a lesson. Not only of bread alone doth man live.

Only TIME has understood the significance of that moment. Only TIME, of all U.S. publications, has spoken in this way: "There was no approving murmur when Padilla finished, no polite slapping of palms. Instead the applause broke like the first clean crack of thunder very near, and it went on and on, while this Man of America stood by his seat and bowed his thanks and his hope. It was the vision that Ezequiel Padilla projected which might be Rio's triumph." . . .

So please do not start to call the triumph of the conference the triumph of Mr. Welles, for those of us who can hear and understand and speak more than one language know better than that.

PABLO L. SOSA

Cornell Law School Ithaca, N.Y.

Defense: Distaff Department

Sirs:

... I can't help wondering whether your remarks about the ladies in civilian defense [TIME, Jan. 26] serve any useful purpose and if, indeed, they are not actually detrimental. The whole setup of civilian defense is subject to criticism, and surely the ineptitudes of many of its personnel, from the top down, should not be whitewashed. You are dealing here, however, with volunteers, both men and women, who give their time and effort with no compensation in the hope that they may be of some small use to their country. . . . ELSIE McKEOGH New York City

Sirs:

Re your article . . . about the activities of various stuffy ladies to grab the spotlight:

The war has developed a very definite type of exhibitionist--the station-wagon patriot.

A. H. PATTERSON Hartford, Conn.

Sirs:

Congratulations for "The Ladies!" But your tact was not evident: don't you know that the best way to make woman rebel is to make her a public laughingstock? And criticize as you may, you have to admit that with the war--the male part of it--going as it is, nobody can afford to poke fun at any well-intentioned offer of either services or money. ... I hope that your very candid article . . . will carry some weight in furthering the functioning of a centralized authority to direct the admirable spirit of volunteer defense groups.

SHEILA S. IRWIN Severna Park, Md.

>Reader Irwin's hope is shared by TIME.--ED.

Cover Ornament

Sirs :

All Americans of whatsoever race abhor the tactics and the treachery of the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. . . . But I desire, for one, to register a protest against the picture on your front cover, Jan. 26, which portrays a Japanese soldier as a helmeted monkey, bayoneted gun in hand, dropping from the limb of a tree, with slanting eyes directed venomously in the direction of "Ter Poorten of the Indies. . . ."

I very seriously question the tactics of belittling any race of human beings because they are different from ourselves. . . .

FRANK C. RlDEOUT Lieut. Colonel (Chaplain) U.S. Army, Retired Newton Center, Mass.

>Aside from its ethical aspect there is no worse military fault than undervaluing the enemy. The little figure on the corner of TIME's cover--not a monkeyfied Jap but a Japified monkey--was intended not as belittlement but as recognition of Japanese jungle agility.--ED.

Correspondent's Uncle

Sirs:

Although you rightly described U.P. Far Eastern Correspondent Karl Eskelund as a veteran (TIME, Jan. 19), he is not as old a veteran as your picture would indicate. Could this by any chance be the picture of rome other correspondent, wrongly captioned? THEODORE H. WHITE New York City

>TIME slipped, pictured Correspondent Eskelund's uncle, who is also a journalist (Director of Press Bureau, Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and whose name is also Karl Eskelund. TIME's apologies to both Eskelunds.--ED.

Right Guy Rooney

Sirs:

I noticed in the Cinema section of TIME for Jan. 19 a story concerning the marriage of Mickey Rooney. Mickey was here in this hospital ward twice to see a personal friend. Both times he went through the ward with his wife, trying to cheer the fellows up. . . .

I must say that morale was sadly lacking in that ward, since it is a fracture ward. Mickey and Ava both gave unselfishly of their time and energy to cheer us up. I have a broken ankle. Mickey and his wife sat on my bed and talked to me and autographed my cast. ... He let the fellows who could walk take pictures of him and drive his car. I think that . . . Mickey should be given proper credit for a very noble deed. ... He is a right guy in Army talk. So please give him credit for coming here.

PHILLIP WHITE Private, Company G, ist Medical Regiment Fort Ord, Calif. >Take it away, Mickey.--ED.

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