Term Limits Would Renew US Congress

The article ``New Breed of Lawmakers Trained to Run Country,'' Nov. 15, is encouraging. From a practical standpoint, however, the only way that we are going to elect many of these new-breed state legislators and municipal leaders to the United States Congress is through term limits and campaign finance reform. This would provide the necessary open seats for guaranteed turnover in Congress and give challengers a reasonable chance to compete with incumbents.

There are now 1,523 female state legislators, for instance, but only 48 women in the US House of Representatives and seven in the Senate. Only two female candidates beat incumbents in the 1992 general election, for a success ratio of less than 5 percent. These new, younger state and local leaders can themselves help open up the election process. George A. Dean, Southport, Conn. Britain's multiculturalism

The review of Bruce Feiler's book ``Looking for Class: Seeking Wisdom and Romance at Oxford and Cambridge,'' Nov. 15, refers to parallels between Britain and Japan that are not valid. During the second half of the 20th century, Britain established a pattern of racial integration (including the immigration of many Asians in the 1960s and '70s) that is considerably broader than most other European nations. Racial tension does exist in parts of Britain's larger cities and the racist views of the far right need to be firmly denounced. Yet mainland Britain remains one of today's most tolerant multicultural societies. Alistair Budd, Rolle, Switzerland