Dear Editor:

I greatly admired the articles on the R.O.C. air force in your last issue, which were in no way inferior to those of a specialist military publication, particularly your writing from a Chinese perspective about the joys and hardships of the current generation of air force pilots and the problems they face. These problems not only are a concern of the air force, I think, but also should be a concern of everyone who lives in Taiwan. The steady decline in the number of people taking the air force officers' test in recent years may be caused by the educational system, because many students start to wear glasses by the time they are in junior or senior high school, so fewer and fewer of them can meet the air force's physical standards.

I am a student and may not have very mature views, but personally I feel that no matter how advanced they may be, the air force's warplanes and weapons systems will be no more than a heap of scrap unless the right people are there to operate them. So I have a suggestion: make the recruitment of students for air force officers' school independent of that for the other military academies, so that it isn't affected by the division of high school education into humanities and science curricula. In that way, more and more suitable candidates can be recruited, perhaps.

Also, as for the "AT-3 bomber" shown in the second photo on page 9, according to what I saw at the Kang Shan air force officer's school and was told by air force personnel, the AT-3 is actually a high-grade training plane. The one in the 315 night attack squadron is only a surface-attack plane at best. It can't be called a bomber because the inside racks on its wings can carry a load of just 636 kg and the ones on the outside can carry only 272 kg, so it cannot carry bombs like the 1,000 lb or even larger bombs used by the Americans in Desert Storm. I hope you will check this.

Tsai Wei-tse

Taipei

Editor's Note:

The AT-3 is indeed a high-grade training plane and not a bomber. We stand corrected and thank you for calling this slipup to our attention.

Dear Editor:

The articles on "Children from the Mainland in Taiwan" last issue were very moving, but I have two questions. First, the article on Li Yi of Ilan said that he tested into his first-choice field, the electrical engineering department at National Taiwan University. How did he manage to do that? Is it true, as I've heard, that students from the mainland are granted extra points, like overseas Chinese? Second, do children from the mainland have to perform obligatory military service when they grow up? If so, supposing a war broke out across the Taiwan Strait, which side would they be loyal to?

Chen Pai-li

Hsinchu

Editor's Note:

Li Yi was awarded extra points when he took the joint college entrance exam. Without them, he would have qualified for the shipbuilding department at National Taiwan University. The question of loyalty is a matter of individual conscience that we are not in a position to address. As for the question of military service, children from the mainland that come to Taiwan become citizens of the Republic of China, are granted residency and receive a national identification card, so they must perform military service like every other adult male citizen.

Dear Editor:

Hello! Mauritius is a little island in the Indian Ocean with a mild climate and two seasons, summer and winter. In summer, the temperature usually stays around 30 degrees, although it may reach 35 around the time of the lunar new year. In winter it stays around 20. There's never any frost or snow. It's late summer here right now.

Yesterday I received the copy you sent me of the April 1991 issue of Sinorama (Chinese-English edition). Reading it has been as refreshing as sipping a cool drink. I'm thrilled at the intellectual sustenance it has afforded me, living in this distant corner of the world. That is a feeling no money can buy.

This is a magazine full of substance, with information on things I never knew about before, a fine Chinese publication not only beloved by myself but read with great interest by my children as well. I would here like to express my thanks and hope that this may lay a foundation for us to join together in spirit across the seas, spur us constantly ahead and bring me further enlightenment.

Liang Chin-chang

Mauritius

Editor's Note:

This letter was forwarded to us by the Voice of Free China.