"PROTEST AGAINST THE SPIRIT"

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I wish to protest against the spirit in which several of the questions addressed to the Soviet Ambassador at the Law School Forum last Friday night were posed. In presenting Mr. Menshikov, I assume it was the purpose of the Harvard United Nations Council and the Harvard Law School Forum to promote understanding between the two great powers. However, some of the questions were not designed to solicit information, but to embarrass the Ambassador personally. Granted that our society is radically different from the Soviet Union, the question period should not have been used to demonstrate this difference, but to understand it, and possibly to explore interests held in common by the two societies. The fact that some of the questions were asked merely with intent of confirming previously held opinions and prejudices, not only illustrates bad manners, but is indicative of the fact that a few American students have lost sight of a value on which our democracy and particularly this University is premised. This is a belief in the value of dispassionate, rational inquiry into the nature of things... It is difficult for me to see how understanding will ever be achieved if the spirit which at times manifested itself during the question period last Friday night should prevail. Richard Buel   Teaching Fellow in History