LETTERS
Dead or Alive?
Sirs:
. . . The Los Angeles [Evening] Herald and Express of May 29 [published a photograph] showing the meeting of General Homma and General Wainwright on May 5. Are you able to reconcile this with the following from TIME, March 16: "After an honorable funeral, the late General Homma's ashes were flown to Tokyo for internment in an honorable shrine."
C. M. THOMSON
Los Angeles, Calif.
>> Despite the photograph released by the Japanese and purporting to show General Jonathan Wainwright surrendering at Corregidor to General Masaharu Homma, Douglas MacArthur is convinced that Homma is dead. In March Corregidor had word that a Jap general of high rank had committed hara-kiri in Manila. His body was publicly carried to a crematorium while soldiers lined the streets. Next day a special plane bearing an urn of ashes took off from Manila. Homma was not seen again in the Philippines and General Tomoyuki Yamashita, conqueror of Malaya, succeeded--according to Tokyo's own announcement--to the command previously held by Homma.--ED.
Norway's Ships
Sirs:
. . . "This time the Allies have only about 25,000,000 tons afloat, but the world is their battlefield. Vast stores of fuel oil, rubber and other riches once available are in the hands of the enemy. So are the resources and shipping of Scandinavia, and, for practical purposes, of Spain" [TIME, June 15].
The shipping of Norway is by no means in the hands of the enemy. Even while the invasion was going on in Norway, the Norwegian Government threw the whole Norwegian merchant fleet into the fight on the side of the Allies. Germany was able to seize only 20% of this fleet, about half of which [20%] were only small coastal craft unfit for the high seas. By royal decrees of April 22 and May 18, 1940, the Norwegian Government requisitioned all Norwegian ships of more than 500 tons. . .
Ever since the Battle of the Atlantic began, a large part of the Norwegian fleet has been trading in the North Atlantic. . . . It has been estimated that Norwegian tankers are transporting some 40% of the total supplies of oil and gasoline to Great Britain and the fighting front. On April 9, 1940, when Norway was invaded, a total of 6,097,130 d.w. tons were under the control of the Norwegian Government; two years later 4,486,063 d.w. tons still were in operation and aiding the Allied cause. . . .
This major contribution to the war of transportation has been costly for Norway. About 250 Norwegian ships with a total tonnage of approximately 1,600,000 tons d.w. have been lost or captured, and some 1,500 lives were lost. . . .
HANS OLAV
Counselor
Royal Norwegian Embassy
Washington, B.C.
>> For a too-inclusive phrase used to point up the far greater Allied shipping problems of World War II, TIME'S apologies. And to the Norwegian merchant marine, all credit for the great work it has done.--ED.
Title-of-the-Week
Sirs:
Re TIME, June 22--WPBabeldom "Title-of-the-Week"--you might add the following:
Imported Foods & Desserts Section of the Food Branch of the Food Supply Branch of the Bureau of Industry Branches of the Division of Industry Operations of the War Production Board.
SULLIVAN E. BARNES
Washington, D.C.
By-Lines & Ghosts
Sirs:
That's a very good article on Ray Clapper --accurate, fair and adequate. At home we think that TIME'S frequent quotation of Clapper is a high tribute to his good judgment and to the good judgment of TIME.
DONALD R. RICHBERG
Washington, D.C.
Sirs:
In TIME, July 6, there is a piece about Ray Clapper in which I am accused of some form of journalistic grand larceny by tacking my by-line on Ray's greatest beat--the nomination of Warren Harding in a "smoke-filled hotel room," out in Chicago in 1920.
I'll confess to being one of the luckiest, as well as the laziest, reporters who ever lived, but I have always drawn the line at larceny, especially from one of my fellow craftsmen. I particularly resent any intimation that I would practice banditry or burglary on Ray Clapper, whom I have always admired intensely and have regarded as one of the greatest newspapermen in the country. . . .
The fact is that Ray, in company with two or three local newspapermen, did do a beautiful job of journalistic sleuthing in locating the Senatorial cabal in a room of the Blackstone Hotel. I stumbled on to them only a few minutes before the meeting broke up and when Ray had the story completely in hand. It definitely was his story, not mine.
The U.P. wire was opened later that morning with a bulletin carrying my byline, definitely announcing that Harding would be nominated that afternoon--the second day of balloting. The reason the story carried my by-line was that I had been assigned to write the daily story on candidates (outside the convention hall), and to have charge of the collection of news on the convention floor. . . . This system of a single by-line covering the work of several men is still in vogue in press associations.
Everyone in the United Press knew of Ray's perfectly swell job in locating this story long before the wire opened. . . . You may be sure that I gave full credit to Ray at the time, so that he received the congratulations from the bosses, not I. . . .
The Clapper episode was not untypical. On the other hand, during my 30-odd years of newspapering, I have done a lot of pretty fair ghosting for other men and never felt that I was being robbed of any glory. . .
HAROLD D. JACOBS
Office of Government Reports
Washington, D.C.
>> To able Journalist Jacobs, TIME's apologies for any implication that the appearance of his name on Clapper's scoop was the result of larceny. He tells well the story of what really happened.--ED.
No Sale
Sirs:
It is no longer news that Franklin Roosevelt and En Guardia* (distributed gratis) are popular in South America. But the following expression of that popularity deserves notice:
The centerpiece of a display in a bookstore window on Carrera Septima was that issue of En Guardia whose cover was a color photo of F.D.R. against a background of the Stars & Stripes. The legend: "No se venden; ni la revista ni F.D.R." ("Not for sale; neither the magazine nor F.D.R.").
CARL A. SAUER
Colombo-American Center
Bogota
No Fiesta?
Sirs:
Your article on Cuba and the sugar industry (TIME, June 15) has done an irreparable injury to her most important industry for years to come. . . .
True, a certain class has been benefited by the better price of sugar during the past year, but that "Cuba is wallowing in money" certainly gives the wrong impression. The working class would like to find some of this money your reporter writes about that we are "wallowing in" and join the "Grande Fiesta." . . .
L. J. BOLLA
Compania Azucarera Fidelidad, S.A.
(Fidelity Sugar Co.)
San German, Oriente, Cuba
Sirs:
. . . The boom you write about is only apparent. Even though the price of sugar has gone up and the Cuban sugar quota is larger, the cost of production has increased so much that even fair profits are questionable. Sugar bags have soared from 18 to 65-c- each, oil from 2 to 5-c- per gallon, steel plates from 2 3/4 % to 22-c- per pound, railroad ties from 90-c- to $1.60 each, wages from 80 and 90-c- to $1.30 and $1.40 per day, etc. To this one must add the extra cost of transportation caused by the storing of sugar in a few predetermined Cuban ports, and also the burden of war taxes.
Some people think that the purchasing power of the nation has been increased because the wages of sugar workers have been boosted an average of about 50%. . . . The fallacy of this is evident when one realizes that the cost of food alone has gone up about 80%. This year the average worker has bought less goods, and has more debts than ever, just in trying to satisfy the bare necessities of life. . . .
J. R. GARRIGA
Havana, Cuba
>> The story on boom times in Cuba brought a score of letters from Cubans telling of poverty and bad times--or at least a reasonable facsimile. Undoubtedly Cuba's prosperity is not yet felt by all classes. But there are also plain and simple facts: 1) Cuba's income this year is at a 15-year peak; 2) Cubans have more automobiles, radios, refrigerators and telephones than ever. Furthermore, the entire export sugar crop has been bought by the U.S. at 2.65-c- (compared to a pre-war world sugar price of less than 1-c-), and will be paid for whether or not delivery is taken.--ED.
* Picture magazine published by Nelson Rockefeller's Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, and sent every month to 175,000 influential Latin Americans.
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