(Ed. Note-The Crimson does not necessarily endorse opinions expressed in printed communications. No attention will be paid to anonymous letters and only under special conditions, at the request of the writer, will names be withheld. Only letters under 400 words can be printed because of space limitations.)

To the Editor of the Crimson:

Revered Hsien-sheng,

Though your Chinese is most fluent,--if one may judge from the front page article and your editorial in the Harvard Crimson of February eight,--still I feel constrained to utter these base words in English.

I agree with you. Anyone who takes a course in "The Intellectual Background of Chinese Literature" where, as is boldly admitted, "a reading knowledge of Chinese, is not required" is just a plain sissy, that's all. Why, it would be as bad as taking a course in Plato without a knowledge of Greek.

I believe you made the point that a 600 percent increase in attendance was proof that the course is a "snap," When the attendance rises in several years from two students to a total of well nigh thirteen, then one may well suspect that insidious forces are at work. The fact that the Department of Far Eastern Languages has increased its teaching staff and facilities fifty per cent within those years and that it is rapidly coming to be regarded as the center of Far Eastern Studies in America should not cause us to hesitate in holding this view. Nor is the possibility that there is a general increase in interest in the Far East worth considering. Everybody knows that East is East and vice versa. Let us keep it so and make two years of Chinese a prerequisite of any course dealing with some phase of Chinese civilization. Furthermore, the proper province of a university is the universe. Hence the advisability of concerning oneself very much with just a third of this world of ours would appear distinctly questionable.

Courses are getting too easy and the university is in a sad plight. Let us by all means have our Chuang Tzu, Ssu-ma Ch'ien, and Po Chu-i unadulterated. With respectful kowtow,   John H. Cox.