In a special message to College undergraduates, the State Department urged last night that as many students as possible go abroad this summer as a means of bringing about better international understanding.

Study and travel abroad are not just interesting and profitable ways of spending a summer vacation--they can help to create "the understanding and good will essential for the establishment of lasting peace," according to Laurence Duggan '27, director of the Department's Institute of International Education.

Students who study in foreign universities, work in reconstruction and cultural projects, or merely travel on their own hook are helping to "modify the critical international tensions of today," Duggan said.

Americans who go abroad will "acquire a background which will enable them better to understand the problems which now face the countries they visit."

Gain Rich Background

A booklet published by the National Student Association and on sale at Phillips Brooks House lists a number of opportunities for putting these maxims from the State Department's student travel division into practice. Among other information on "Study, Travel, and Work," it describes costs and living conditions at 49 foreign universities.

Other local projects that attempt to carry out the International-exchange idea include a camp for undernourished French children to be maintained by the Harvard and Radcliffe NSA chapters, and the Student Council's Salzburg Seminar, whose second session this summer will bring together foreign students and American Professors.