Little has appeared in these columns about Harvard's Civil Affairs Training officers, formal name for the uniformed brass hats who joke in Japanese and swear in Japanese and even try to think in Japanese.

The wiles of a woman late last month persuaded the War Department in Washington that what had always been hush-hush so far as the press is concerned could be released for public consumption with no great danger to anything or anybody.

What the CATS (Civil Affairs Training School) experience may give to Harvard-and to Yale, Michigan, Chicago, Northwestern, and Stanford, where similar training has been given-is a new approach to language instruction. The prospective Major Joppolos of the Far East are studying Japanese now, but European and Mediterranean languages were being taught the same way just a year ago.

Speed and accuracy have been of the essence, and with good reason. As Robert Jordan, Hemingway's FWTBT hero, reminded himself, "They trusted you on the language principally. They trusted you on understanding the language completely and speaking it idiomatically."

Faced with a different task from that of Robert Jordan, the CATS have much the same difficulty. To fit these men for their jobs as administrators of occupied territories, Harvard has pioneered in finding the optimum method for accelerating language teaching.

Engineered by such men as Samuel H. Cross, professor of Slavic Languages, and Serge Elisseeff, professor of Far Eastern Languages, long experimentation has produced the method most suited to the Army's purpose. The requirements of the military for speed in teaching and the insistence upon the use of the spoken language called for a complete revision of the traditional methods of language instruction.

More academic, perhaps, than any other training school in its subject matter, the School's officers will graduate at Harvard's regular commencement on June 28, along with the civilians who are studying philosophy and fine arts-and, in some cases, Japanese.

Morale among the CATS is probably as high as in any training unit. Last week the first issue of Cat-Nip, in some respects similar to The Lucky Bag but with the Japanese words and phrases mingled with the more accustomed lingo, made its four-paged heliotyped appearance.

A glimpse of the classroom work of the GI Japanese student furnishes the best idea of Harvard's "optimum method." Speaking in Japanese, a native instructor answers the questions, also in Japanese, fired at him by the students: "Where are the Japanese troops likely to have taken refuge?" the khaki-clad American asks in the strange tongue. His knowledge of the geography of the area enables him to understand, and perhaps discount, the Jap's answer.

An article in "Military Affairs" published two years ago shows why the modern soldier must understand the language of the area in which he is stationed and why he must have sufficient knowledge to evaluate any information given him by the natives.

The article says, in part: "No one who is to undertake administration of foreign territory should underestimate the language problem; . . . where he must rely on interpreters, he should always keep in mind that these fellows are more exposed to bribery and corruption than anyone else employed in this kind of administration. The interpreter is a figure as important in military and internal administration, and often as venal, as the dragoman in the days of the old Turk in Constantinople."

To remove the possibility of being tricked by a crafty native translator, American armies must have men who can speak Japanese, German, and any other foreign languages necessary in countries which may be occupied by our troops. They must know, furthermore, languages which may be needed for effective liaison with our allies.

Language instruction at the CAT School has emphasized the requirements needed by trainees to meet concrete situations in which they are likely to find themselves. They must ascertain from friendly natives necessary and strategic information. And the concrete situations are actually dramatized by the students.

The directives issued by the War Department for the CATS embodied what to many linguists appeared rather radical ideas. They have stressed the colloquial form of languages studied, and have demanded ability to speak the language fluently, accurately, and with an acceptable approximation to a native pronunciation. The War Department, moreover, wants practically perfect auditory comprehension of the language as spoken by natives.

All the courses, therefore, have stressed a minimum knowledge of the structure of Japanese, and maximum oral practice with native assistants. Wide use has been made of recordings, newspapers, films, and other teaching aids