O'CASEY PLAY SOUGHT BY PETITION TO MAYOR

A group of Harvard students led by Richard C. Boys '35, captain of the basketball team, and John C. Haggott '35, president of the Harvard Dramatic Club have petitioned Mayor Frederick W. Mansfield of Boston to reconsider his banning of Sean O'Casey's "Within the Gates."

Declaring that immorality is quite as prevalent in Boston as in London and that the alleged immorality of the play is no more conducive to actual immorality than the statues in the Museum of Fine Arts are conducive to nudism, the group asks that the ban be lifted.

The petitions were posted in the various House dining halls on Wednesday night during dinner and more than 300 signatures were secured.

While students rose in protest against the action of Boston's Mayor, faculty members expressed disapproval of the ban. Several went on record as declaring that Boston had been deprived of a great artistic experience and that the action was quite as stupid as the banning of "Strange Interlude."

The student group has been attempting to find a town outside of the city limits, which would allow the presentation of the play. As yet they have been unsuccessful and the nearest city which has stated that it would accept "Within the Gates" is Hartford, Conn. The city of Quincy, which housed "Strange Interlude" after the Boston censors had turned it out, refused to receive O'Casey's production.