Deferment Test Halt Should Not Alter 2-S

Selective Service officials doubt that General Lewis B. Hershey's decision to suspend deferment tests will affect students' draft status in the next few months.

Hershey notified the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that the three-hour test would not be given while Congress and the President are considering how to change the draft.

Some students here were worried yesterday that suspension of the tests would throw draft boards back to reliance on rank in class.

A spokesman for the Selective Service System said that Hershey cancelled the tests because of their high cost of administration. Hershey saw no point in paying for college deferment tests when a new draft law might abolish 2-S.

Colonel Paul F. Feeney, deputy director of the Massachusetts Selective System, agreed. "It may be that Congress is going to provide different standards," he said. "Why invest so many hundreds of thousands of dollars in this test?"

No More Vulnerable

Pointing out that draft boards are not required to accept results of the tests, Feeney guessed that students would be no more vulnerable to induction without the tests than with them.

[In Washington, the Senate approved a four-year extension of the draft yesterday by a 70-2 vote. The bill would leave President Johnson free to make such changes as drafting 19-year-olds first and employing a lottery selection system.

The Senate also recommended a continuation of deferments for college students until they attain their degree, reach 24 years of age, or lose their college standing.]

Hershey predicted last year that draft boards might have to take deferred students if monthly draft calls exceeded 30,000 men per month.