Report of Independent Accountants
To the Trustees and Investors of
The International Equity Portfolio
In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements of
The International Equity Portfolio (the Portfolio) for the year
ended October 31, 2000, 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 Portfolio 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 entitys 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, errors 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 their 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 October 31, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of the
Trustees of the Portfolio, management and the Securities and
Exchange Commission and is not intended to be and should not be
used by anyone other than these specified parties.
December 21, 2000
To the Trustees and Investors of
The International Equity Portfolio
