"I swear that everyone at Harvard has a cold," declared Edmond Tipping, Nieman Fellow from Melbourne, Australia. "There's so much coughing and sneezing at lectures you can hardly hear the bloke who's speaking. It must be the weather. In my country, the sun always shines."

Apart from the lack of sunshine, Tipping is enjoying his first visit to America. Like most of his Nieman colleagues who have complete freedom in selecting courses, Tipping is sitting in on courses ranging from Human Rights to Art in Man's Environment. His afternoons bring beer and discussion sessions at the Faculty Club with other Niemans and professors. But he takes advantage of the evenings to imbibe Boston cultural offerings with his wife. "My only task is finding a baby sitter for my three boys," he smiles. "In Melbourne they're on call, like doctors."

"Tip," as he likes to be called, is one of the three journalists from the British Empire here as special Nieman Fellows under a grant of the Carnegie Foundation. Selected for his outstanding performance as chief of staff on the Melbourne Herald, a post like that of city editor on an American paper, 36-year-old "Tip" considers his fellowship "a chance to catch up on the education I missed while grinding out newspaper copy." While a law student at the University of Melbourne, he started writing for the Herald in order to augment his scholarship. "But I was so bloody proud to see my stuff in print that I forgot law and stayed with the Herald after graduation." Starting as a copy boy, he quickly rose to war correspondent during World War II and shortly after, he became chief of staff.

Australia's biggest problem, Tipping believes, is its Communist Party. Because the Communists control the transportation, coal, and steel workers' unions, he thinks their power far exceeds party membership. Like France and Italy, Australia has had its share of Communist-led strikes, which have paralyzed the national economy. Tipping traces Communist power to public apathy. "The average trade unionist would rather go to a horse race than a union election meeting, and so the Reds can slip their men in top union positions."

Although alert to the Red threat, the Australian people, in his opinion, show none of the hysteria Tipping finds in the United States. A constitutional amendment to outlaw the Communist Party was opposed by none other than Herbert Evatt, first president of the General Assembly. "Evatt risked political suicide by defending the Reds' rights, but the amendment was roundly defeated by the people."

Academic freedom has never been an issue in Australia, he says. "The university is regarded as sacrosanct, a forum for all shades of opinion. We've got our McCarthys and Obers, but the public laughs them down."

Tipping has found two aspects of Harvard that Australian universities lack--the House system and the Saturday football show. "We'd build Houses if we could afford it, but we could never take your football. I went to the Dartmouth game, and I'm still in a bloody daze. It's not the players so much but the daffy crowd. All the ballyhoo and cheering and such. But I guess that's what's meant by American spirit."