New York Session of Delegation to Prague Created Orderly Program

Last May, after a College-wide referendum, a committee of the Student Council voted to send Douglass Cator '46, then Editorial Chairman of the CRIMSON, as the Harvard (and New England) delegate to an International conference of students to be held in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Cater returned to Cambridge last week and has prepared a report to the student body on the results of the Conference. This is the first section of that report.

On a sweltering day in early July, 25 students from colleges all over the country met in New York City. As the American delegation to the International Students Congress taking place in Prague during the latter part of August, this group had allotted itself one short week before sailing to work out a program representative of American student opinion. A week of bombastic sessions lasting late into the nights proved that this was no easy assignment.

Ten colleges and nine student organizations sponsored the twenty-five delegates. From campuses as widely scattered as Harvard and the University of California, from organizations as diverse as the National Catholic Youth Council and American Youth for Democracy, the group represented a real cross section of the American student body. By chance, Harvard had a second delegate in the person of William Ellis '44, who was sent by the Y.M.C.A. of America.

I had felt some misgivings beforehand that this delegation might be stacked with one political faction or another. It was relieving to find that there was a great diversity of opinion among us, but no hard division into cliques. In over-lasting tribute to our sanctity, not even the Hearst newspapers found cause to smear on the old familiar label. In fact, news coverage of the New York sessions was thorough and accurate.

Once we had assembled, the American preparatory commission, a joint project of nine student organizations which had brought together the delegates, was formally dissolved. We were left to work out our own programs.

The work fell into three main sections: the preparation of a series of resolutions on the students' role in the post war world, the adoption of a draft constitution for a permanent international student organization, and the formulation of the tasks which this organization would fill.

Our delegation agreed unanimously that little benefit would result from a students congress which chose merely to sound off on all the vexing problems of our times--that is, to become a sort of junior United Nations, with no authority but much fuss and fury. A far more realistic appreach to the tedious process of building peace would be to create an efficient, non-partisan international body which could begin to tear down the barriers, both physical and intellectual, that separate students of the world.

With agreement on this basic principle, it was not impossible to work out a program. We did not shy away from an attempt to define the students interest in the world outside the ivory tower. In fact, resolutions which we adopted were quite prominent in Prague, whole sections being incorporated into the final report of the Congress.

But we gave emphasis in our New York sessions to the preposed International Union of Students that we wished to establish. Detailed proposals were worked out for an international clearing house for student exchange, a commission to work on the rehabilitation of devastated universities, an international student newspaper and journal to facilitate exchange of ideas and information. Other proposals, too numerous to list, were drafted during those wearisome twelve hour sessions in New York. When the week was up, we had the basic frame work of a program which was to prove invaluable when we arrived in Prague.

Before quitting New York the delegation elected Russell Austin, a tall mild-mannered delegate from the University of Chicago, as chairman. A veteran of World War II, he was shot up badly in the Italian campaign, and left permanently disabled. But it was his quiet capable manner of bringing about compromise whenever there seemed to be a split which earned him the right to speak as head of the delegation. We never found reason during the strain of the period which followed to regret our choice.

Half the delegation left New York on July 16 aboard the SS Brazil while the rest followed ten days later on the George Washington. For the first few days life on board ship was carefree, but as we neared the continent of Europe, a certain tension settled over us all.

We felt keenly the gulf which has existed between American and European students and wondered rather fearfully whether it could over be bridged