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SIGNATURE NICK DALMASO
TITLE ATTORNEY
Independent Auditors' Report on Internal Accounting Control
The Board of Trustees and Shareholders of
Van Kampen High Income Trust:
In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements of Van
Kampen High Income Trust (the "Trust") for the year ended December 31, 1998, we
considered its internal control, including control activities for safeguarding
securities, in order to determine our auditing procedures for the purpose of
expressing our opinion on the financial statements and to comply with the
requirements of Form N-SAR, not to provide assurance on internal control.
The management of the Trust is responsible for establishing and maintaining
internal control. In fulfilling this responsibility, estimates and judgments by
management are required to assess the expected benefits and related costs of
controls. Generally, controls that are relevant to an audit pertain to the
entity's objective of preparing financial statements for external purposes that
are fairly presented in conformity with generally accepted accounting
principles. Those controls include the safeguarding of assets against
unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in internal control, error or fraud may
occur and not be detected. Also, projection of any evaluation of internal
control to future periods is subject to the risk that it may become inadequate
because of changes in conditions or that the effectiveness of the design and
operation may deteriorate.
Our consideration of internal control would not necessarily disclose all
matters in internal control that might be material weaknesses under standards
established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. A
material weakness is a condition in which the design or operation of one or more
of the internal control components does not reduce to a relatively low level the
risk that misstatements caused by error or fraud in amounts that would be
material in relation to the financial statements being audited may occur and not
be detected within a timely period by employees in the normal course of
performing their assigned functions. However, we noted no matters involving
internal control and its operation, including controls for safeguarding
securities, that we consider to be material weaknesses as defined above as of
December 31, 1998.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of management,
the Board of Trustees of the Trust, and the Securities and Exchange Commission
and is not intended to be and should not be used by anyone other than these
specified parties.
February 4, 1999
High Income Trust (VIT)
The Joint Annual Meeting of Shareholders of the Trust was held on July
28, 1998, where shareholders voted on the election of Trustees and the
ratification of KPMG Peat Marwick LLP as independent auditors. With regard to
the election of Don G. Powell as elected Trustee by the common shareholders of
the Trust 10,819,994 shares voted in his favor and 168,771 shares withheld. With
regard to the election of Hugo F. Sonnenschein as elected Trustee by the common
shareholders of the Trust 10,807,120 shares voted in his favor and 181,645
shares withheld. With regard to the election of Theodore A. Myers as elected
Trustee by the preferred shareholders of the Trust 344 shares voted in his favor
and 0 shares withheld. The other trustees of the Fund whose terms did not expire
in 1998 are Rod Dammeyer, David C. Arch, Dr. Steven Muller, Ph.D., Howard J Kerr
and Wayne W. Whalen. With regard to the ratification of KPMG Peat Marwick LLP as
independent public accountants for the Trust, 10,783,694 shares voted in favor
of the proposal, 81,062 shares voted against and 124,353 shares abstained.
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