This paper examines a subclass of nonselfadjoint distributed parameter systems described by partial differential equations which are second order in time. The sub-class considered are those systems which have coefficients which lie in a class of symmetrizable operators. The control problem addressed is that of the validity of using a finite dimensional model in designing a control law for such systems. This is done by a straight forward application of the results by Gibson1 and Sakawa2 to a class of symmetrizable systems.