Advertisement

8 More Harvard Students Return Draft Cards As 200 Demonstrate

Sixty draft cards, at least eight belonging to Harvard students, were refused yesterday by two assistant deputy federal attorneys after a delegation from the New England Resistance tried to turn them in as a protest against the Vietnam war and the Selective Service.

The cards had been collected earlier at a memorial service in Boston's Old West Church. Another five cards were burned with altar candles.

The rejected cards however, were left on a counter at the attorneys' office on the 11th floor of the Post Office Building in Post Office Square.

Neil Robertson, a member of the delegation, said last night that he expected the FBI would begin an investigation of those who turned in their cards, as it did after last month's mass turn-in.

Only 200 demonstrators marched from the church to Post Office Square for the ceremonial surrender and rally. Sponsors of the affair--The Resistance, the Boston Draft Resistance Group, and the Boston Committee of Religious Concern for Peace--had expected 5000.

Advertisement

Harassment

For the demonstrators, it was an afternoon of harassment.

Harold Hector of 183 Columbia St., Cambridge, was treated at Massachusetts General Hospital for shock and cuts and bruises he had received outside the church after he and other Resistance members scuffled with pro-war demonstrators, many of them Government Center construction workers.

Hector ejected a counter-demonstrator from the church after the man tried to break up the service.

As Hector pushed the man out of the building, 15 hecklers, waiting in the courtyard, set upon him swinging their fists.

Blood

Resistance people entered the fray, but by that time Hector had been severely beaten, with blood streaming down the right side of his face and his yellow velour sweater streaked with red.

Patrolman James B. Barry, 30 yards from the scene, heard cries for help and succeeded in breaking up the fight. No one was arrested.

The demonstrators were greeted at Post Office Square by a hostile crowd of 300, mostly office workers on their lunch hour. As one Resistance member spoke, someone yelled, "Don't listen to him. He's a Communist!"

Police used dogs and horses to break up the pro-war mob. One dog mistakenly bit a police captain on the left leg.

Recommended Articles

Advertisement