27 OCTOBER 1961, Page 15

AMERICANA—I

SIR,—Thank you very much for printing Mr. MacLeish's article entitled 'Dementia Americana' in your issue of September 29. This is exactly the kind of service which our .recent ambassador, Mr. Whitney, said he had to perform by way of correcting the national image that gets grossly distorted in its Atlantic crossing. On a recent visit to England I similarly found that our view of you as diffident and aloof was no longer as true as it may have been a quarter of a century ago, or perhaps only prior to Suez. I was especially grateful for your mature and generous response to the Cuban fiasco. May you continue to report as well of America—and may your reports, such as Mr. MacLeish's. indeed be true in fact as well as in sympathy.

HENRY PEITIT