A QUESTION OF WORDS

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I take the strongest possible objection to the sentence you have published about me in the Registration Issue of The Harvard Crimson ("Harvard Stays Mum on Greek Bequest"). The sentence reads, "Kaiser would neither confirm nor deny the report..." That is a deliberately misleading sentence, inasmuch as your use of "would" implies that you asked me to confirm or deny a report that the Greek government had given Harvard one million dollars. The simple fact is that your reporter never even mentioned such a rumor in either of our two telephone conversations.

In our first telephone conversation, on September 5th, the only thing I said to your reporter was that she was interrupting my lunch, that I was in a rush to catch a plane, and that I could not talk to her at that time. On September 11th, your reporter called and said she wanted to talk about Harvard's plans for a program in Modern Greek studies; I replied (she may recall that I had to repeat the same sentence twice since she did not appear to comprehend it on the first hearing) that in view of the fact that she had already spoken with President Bok about this I did not feel that I had anything to add to what he might have told you; and that was the extent of our conversation. Would you claim that I "would neither confirm not deny" rumors that the earth is flat, that Bacon wrote Shakespeare, or that two plus two equals seven, when you have not asked me about those matters either? Walter Kaiser   Professor of English and   Comparative Literature