IT MAY be sheer presumption for me, a Romance language instructor, to address you on the subject of the Slavic languages. Yet, be it said, in self-defense, I have never been far removed from people and things Slavonic. My ancestors dwelled some two centuries in Poland and my parents immigrated here from Galicja. As for me, I was born and reared in the vicinity of Cleveland, Ohio. Truly, I cannot remember a time in my childhood when I did not hear neighbors and acquaintances speak Slovak, Czech, Slovene, Polish. My Ph.D. degree, obtained at the University of Wisconsin, included a minor in Slavic, with courses from Profs. Senn and Birkenmaier. During the recent war it was my privilege, while serving overseas with Gen. Donovan's Office of Strategic Services (OSS), to apply this Slavic training in the interrogation of POW's, DP's, refugees, etc., and in document translation. My teaching experience in this field has, however, been limited to a brief course in basic Russian for personnel of the OSS Bari detachment, in Italy, 1944-1945. Conceivably I might do worse than to begin my talk by repeating some remarks from the provocative article by Prof. Ludmila Buketoff Turkevich, in the June 15, 1948 AATSEEL bulletin: