Sir - The examples chosen by Mr Brendan O'Brien (May 11th) to support his finding of "low standards of writing and subediting" in your newspaper are far from forceful. The spelling "millenium" is recognised by the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as a valid alternative to the more common `millennium'; also, "forego" is listed as a variant of "forgo" and "forgo" of "forego". Thus, while it may be preferable to adhere to the more common spelling and to distinguish between "forgo" and "forego", these examples are within the limits of accepted usage and cannot be criticised.- Yours etc., Gerald E. Smyth
Ushiku City, Japan