diff --git a/C/iopreds.c b/C/iopreds.c
index 61e884450..3737d7aaf 100644
--- a/C/iopreds.c
+++ b/C/iopreds.c
@@ -1967,7 +1967,7 @@ get_wchar(int sno)
 	wch = 0;
       }
       how_many--;
-      wch += ((unsigned char) (ch & 0xff)) << (how_many*8);
+      wch += ((unsigned char) (ch & 0xff)) << ((3-how_many)*8);
       if (how_many == 0)
 	return wch;
       break;
@@ -1977,7 +1977,7 @@ get_wchar(int sno)
 	wch = 0;
       }
       how_many--;
-      wch += ((unsigned char) (ch & 0xff)) << ((3-how_many)*8);
+      wch += ((unsigned char) (ch & 0xff)) << (how_many*8);
       if (how_many == 0)
 	return wch;
       break;
@@ -2803,6 +2803,7 @@ p_open (void)
 	     (needs_bom || (st->status & Seekable_Stream_f))) {
     if (!check_bom(sno, st))
       return FALSE;
+    /*
     if (st->encoding == ENC_ISO_UTF32_BE) {
 	    Yap_Error(DOMAIN_ERROR_STREAM_ENCODING, ARG1, "UTF-32 (BE) stream encoding unsupported");
 	    return FALSE;
@@ -2810,6 +2811,7 @@ p_open (void)
 	    Yap_Error(DOMAIN_ERROR_STREAM_ENCODING, ARG1, "UTF-32 (LE) stream encoding unsupported");
 	    return FALSE;
     }
+    */
   }
   st->status &= ~(Free_Stream_f);
   return (Yap_unify (ARG3, t));