H.L.U. Requests State Department To Allow African to Stay in U.S.

The Liberal Union yesterday called upon the State Department to allow an African Negro student to continue his studies in the United States.

The State Department recently refused to renew the visa of Reuel Mugo Gatheru of Kenya, East Africa, who is now a junior at Lincoln University, Pennsylvania. The refusal may have been a result of pressure from the British government, Phillipe Villers '55, political-action chairman of the HLU said last night.

In a letter to the State Department's Africa Desk, the Executive Board of the Liberal Union said:

"We feel that the United States more than ever before must keep up its traditional role as a friend of the peoples of backward areas. . . We would, therefore, strongly urge you to allow Mr. Gatheru the advantage of an American education and to insure us of the friendship of a possible future leader of his people."

Villers said that if there was British pressure not to renew the visa, it was probably the result of racial feeling in East Africa.