Valedictory Service Completes War-Lorn '43 Commencement

Traditions of 300 years and more were swept away yesterday when Harvard combined the observance of a graduation with a solemn and stately tribute to her sons leaving to join the service of their country. The colorful Valedictory Service in Memorial Hall highlighted the short week-end of activities, a far cry from the round of ceremonies and festivities that once formed an important part of Commencement.

Graduation for this war-time Class of 1943 consisted merely of an abbreviated Class Day, a Senior supper, and the Valedictory. But, as Eric Larrabee wrote in his Ode; "Though the leaves of our laurels are withered and brown, We will bear them as though they were green."

The change in location and season made little difference in the reception of ancient class parts. The Ivy Oration, by Joseph C. Scott, was greeted with applause and laughter from the "Classmatibus hic haec hoc anno domini c pluribus unum veritas ad infinitum hocus pocus salutem" at the beginning, to the imitation of a History I professor who declared at the end, that "the chaos to which we are now subjected is like the screechings and scratching of a great orchestra, which is in reality but tuning up to play a great triumphal march-the Overture in Africa-and the Finale in Berlin."

First Marshal Adelbert Ames started the Class Day off by introducing John W. Sullivan to the audience of 700 undergraduates and friends. "We are determined to shape the future by our own actions today. We shall take tomorrow in our strong hands and mold it to our own will." But he pointed out that "Idealism alone does not explain this will of ours; a clear sense of patriot self-interest is just as important. The dread of futility turns our minds to postwar planning. Though we have no specific details in mind, there are certain general principles on which most of us agree.

Isolationism Gone

"Outstanding among these principles is the one which states that isolationism for America belongs as much to the past as the town pump. Fundamental is our conviction that internationalism and postwar planning are the only medicaments for healing the world's wounds." Those who had listened to Class Orators of not-so-many years past decry that principle, and many others now accepted by students at Harvard, must have noted the change with considerable interest.

Hoffman then delivered the poem; selections by the Glee Club were followed

and pilots reported that railway yards and at least one illuminating gas storage tank were "were alight."

The raiding force unofficially estimated at 150 and including some of Britain's biggest bombers, fought its way through bad weather on route to the Ruhr, but found only a light haze over Essen.

Seven bombers were lost. A gunner on a four-engined Lancaster bomber said he saw his bullets strike a Junkers SS night fighter, but could not confirm that it crashed