On the question of Basic English, raised by Winston Churchill at Harvard (TIME, Sept. 20), a small voice had a large suggestion to make last week. The voice was that of Dr. Lin Mou-sheng, Chinese scholar, author and editor. On CBS's People's Platform Dr. Lin interrupted a discussion of whether Basic English should be encouraged as an international language. Dr. Lin asked a disarming pair of questions: Why Basic English? Why not Basic Chinese?
His argument: Chinese is the mother tongue of 450,000,000 people. Hardly more than 200,000,000 people can claim English for their own. There is no easier, simpler language to...
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