THE WITNESS
MONTREAL
Feby 5， 1912
To His Excellency President Sun Yat Sen.
Dear Sir，
Since you visited us not long ago you have became the greatest man in the world.I learn that you think to introduce the study of the English language throughout China.I am therefore sending you a copy of an article I have written for the “witness” and shall send you also the weekly edition of the paper in which it has appeared.
The conclusions of the article I have no doubt you will agree with， even if you do not think well to carry out its proposal.
You have engineered one vast revolution to the wonder of the whole world.This that I am proposing would be no insignificant appendix to that great achievement.It would indeed make the whole world greatly your debtor.
Those who have sought to make a phonetic system for the English language have usually lost themselves in seeking a system of characters that would represent all the sounds of all languages and with altogether unnecessary refinements on the sounds formed in our own.A practical aim would avoid any complication that could be avoided， ever at the risk of some logical imperfection.
The English peoples are too conservative to accomplish this reform for themselves， but I am convinced that once well in use in the orient， it would rapidly gain ground with educationist and with practical men.
The saving it would be to a nation acquiring the language would be very great even if the learners had to make their way through the muges of one conventional spelling later.Chinese editions of our classics could be printed in the new spelling.
I am， sir，With great respect，Yours very sincerely，
I.R.Dougall
（译文）
1912年2月5日
致总统孙逸仙阁下。
尊敬的先生：
自从您不久前拜访本地以来，您已成为世界上最伟大的人。我知道您想在中国各地推动英语学习，因此，我寄去一份我为《见证者》写的文章，并将发表文章的该期周刊寄给您。
我毫不怀疑您会同意这篇文章的结论，即使您没有想好是否推行这个建议。
您策划了一场世界性奇迹的伟大革命。我所提议的这一点，对于这一伟大成就而言，并非无足轻重的附属品，确实会使整个世界成为您的债务人。
那些试图为英语建立一个语音系统的人，通常会迷失在寻找一种符号系统中，这种系统能代表语言的所有声音，并对我们自己形成的声音进行完全不必要的改进。一个可行的目标将避免任何可以避免的复杂情形，即使有一些逻辑缺陷的风险。
英国人过于保守，不可能自己完成这项改革，但我相信，一旦在东方得到很好的利用，它将很快在教育家和实干家中获得一席之地。
对于一个掌握这种语言的国家来说，即使以后的学习者不得不通过一个传统的拼法来学习，其效率也会非常省事。我们经典作品的中文版可以用新拼法印刷。
道格尔 敬上