Shortliffe

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I was interested in your article and editorial on Glen Shortliffe's difficulties with the U. S. immigration officials, and am writing to tell you what I know about his work and opinions. I was an undergraduate at Queen's University from 1945-48, knew Shortliffe slightly, audited his lectures occasionally, and heard him speak numerous times at forums and public meetings.

He was generally acknowledged to be one of the abisst and most conscientious teachers in the university, and his scholarship in the field of French literature was highly regarded by his colleagues. (His latest work is in the November '48 number of Symposium.)

Shortliffe is a member of the Cooperative Commenwealth Federation, a political party whose position corresponds roughly to that of the British Labour Party, and which holds 13 seats in the federal parliament, forms the government of the provice of Saskatchewan and the Official Opposition in Ontario and British Columbia. He often speaks at the Kingston branch of the CCF and has been a frequent news commentator on the national hookup of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (a government department). As far as I know he hasn't alarmed anyone but the Tory newspapers in Montreal and Toronto, and the Canadian Manufacturers Association.

He is certainly left-wing and just as certainly not a communist, a distinction which a number of people can't be bothered to make nowadays. In public speeches I have often heard him condemn the present dictatorship in Russia; I have also read an article in which he condemns the Atlantic Pact (International Journal, April '49; see also "Correspondence" in the July number.) He steers difficult course quite honestly and openly. To the right wing he's a commie; to the commies he's a "social fascist," whatever that means. To me, and, I should think, to most people he would be a welcome addition to the American academic world. A. E. Mulloch G-2.