Letters, Jun. 25, 1951

(2 of 3)

For once . . . we must disagree with TIME. The current term applying to a number of cats (especially domesticated cats having grown wild) is "pack"!

Having serviced some 35,000 cats during the past 13 years, and being considered authorities on the subject, we most strenuously object to the introduction of obsolete terminology from abroad . . .

ROBERT LOTHAR KENDELL

President

The American Feline Society, Inc.

New York City

City of Chicago

Sir:

. . . We are most concerned to read your May 28 reference to our S.S. City of Chicago [photographed by U.S. Navy patrol planes sent out to check on ships suspected of carrying cargoes into Siberian or Chinese ports].

The City of Chicago has at no time called at either Siberian or Chinese ports . . . This vessel, in the course of her last voyage, loaded a cargo of lumber at Otaru, Hokkaido, North Japan, for London and it may be that it was during her passage either to or from this port that the aeroplane sighted this vessel . . .

D. A. LLOYD

Director

Ellerman & Bucknall Steamship Co. Ltd.

London

Is the Cavalry Washed Up?

Sir:

. . . Our troops [in Korea] are bound to the roads because their vehicles cannot negotiate the terrain off the roads. Even the movement of our foot soldiers is restricted . .. because supplies must be brought to them by vehicles. Thus, the enemy is able to advance in other areas, infiltrating and outflanking . . . With a proper complement of mounted units, cavalry, pack artillery and pack trains, because of their great cross-country mobility, the enemy infiltration and flank attacks could have been checked or prevented.

In this kind of terrain it is almost impossible to achieve a pursuit of destruction without cavalry which can advance swiftly across country in a pursuit of interception as achieved by Field Marshal Lord Allenby [in the 1917-18 Palestine campaign] . . . General Lucian Truscott [commander, 3rd Infantry Division, Italian campaign] stated that with cavalry for pursuit, he believed he could have achieved [a faster] victory in Italy . . . The late General Patton said, "In almost any conceivable theater of operations, situations arise where the presence of horse cavalry, in a ratio of a division to an army, will be of vital moment."

Thus our cavalry generals understood clearly the necessity of having ready, mobile mounted units when the theater of war demanded their use. Unfortunately, our infantry generals in the saddle (though they will resent the allusion), their eyes fixed on the roads of Western Europe, have prematurely and unwisely destroyed our great cavalry. It must be revived.

JOHN KNOWLES HERR

Washington, D.C.

¶ To Major General Herr, the U.S. Army's last Chief of Cavalry, TIME'S thanks for a spirited contribution to a timeless debate.—ED.

Down Evolution Alley with Adler

Sir:

So Mortimer Adler's at it again, trying to down [Darwinian] evolution, to make it possible for us once again to accept the idea that man is created in God's Own Image [TIME, June 4],

Is it Morty himself who is doing this, tongue in cheek, to stir up controversial interest? . . . Why blaspheme God, by attributing to Him man's hideous "image"? . . .

HARRY LEBAU