TIMES OPENS CURRENT EVENTS CONTEST TODAY

With the desire of stimulating an interest in current history the New York Times will hold its annual Intercollegiate Current Events Contest this afternoon in Room O of the Government department on the top floor of the College Library. Contestants will be examined for 2 until 5 o'clock on occurances of local and international interest from March 1, 1931, up to today.

The first prize is a cash award of $150, the second $75, and the third $25. Since students are not required to register for the examination there is not indication of the number that will compete. Last year only 25 contestants wrote papers. Although the contest is open to Radcliffe students as well as Harvard undergraduate few of the former have taken the quiz in past years. It is not necessary to be a Government student to compete. Any one who is fairly conversant with the news of the day will find the test within his capabilities. Group IV and V men have won the prizes in previous years.

In 1928 Harvard won the special in-

tercollegiate prize with the best paper of those submitted by more than 25 colleges. This prize of $500 will be awarded at the same time the local prizes are distributed, about a month after the Harvard winners are announced. A special committee selected by A. N. Holcombe '06, professor of Government, will grade the papers and the names of prize winners will probably be announced next week. Neither the names nor standings of any contestants except the winners will be published.

The first part of the examination consists of 50 short questions that require no more than a line to answer, such as: Who is Sun Yat Sen? Who holds the world's automobile speed record? Who is Judge Cardoza? The remaining part of the examination is designed to take two hours. From a list of twelve essay topics, three subjects must be chosen and a concise essay of from 250 to 600 words written on each subject. Sample questions are: Discuss England and the gold standard, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and Issues left unsettled by the Treaty of Versailles