Crew Opens Drive To Gain Support

The group of Harvard crew members supporting the Olympic Project for Human Rights will begin next week to contact by mail all other members of the United States Olympic team.

Curt Canning, captain of the crew and one of the six members of the group formed earlier this summer, said yesterday that the group will send out personal letters to the basketball team and to the part of the equestrian team which has been chosen. Most of the trials for the more than 500 Olympic berths will be held during the next two weeks.

The goal of the group is to provide information to white team members about the expected black demonstration, and to stimulate discussion of the issues and possible support for the black athletes.

In addition to a short personal note to each athlete, the group will be sending him a copy of the statement they made to the press July 24 and two pages of answers to questions commonly asked of the group, such as "why not boycott?" Canning and the other members of the group continue to say they themselves will not boycott the Olympic Games.

Canning said that the group does not exist to try to moderate the stand the blacks may take in Mexico City. "The Olympic Committee [nonetheless] seems to think of us as a possible moderating influence," the captain said, and he added that members of the Committee have been in touch with him.

Although he insisted that "We're not in this to persuade the blacks to do what we want to do," Canning personally thinks the most effective demonstration would be "a joint one which whites could join because of something called good taste."