SDS Mills in to Stop Marine Recruiter

About 35 SDS members milled-in at the Office for Graduate and Career Plans yesterday morning, attempting to prevent a Marine Corps representative from interviewing students there.

Demanding to see the Marine-Capt. Robert S. McLellan-some of the members of the group tried to push their way towards his room but were stopped by office staff members.

On the advice of John B. Fox Jr., director of the OG and CP. McLellan had arrived at the office at 8:10 a. m., 50 minutes earlier than had been scheduled originally and before any demonstrators had gathered.

After picketing for an hour, most SDS demonstrators dispersed to recruit supporters. When they returned at about 10:15 a. m., they entered the building, asking to see McLellan. Fox told them they could send a few representatives but could not meet with McLellan as a group.

"I didn't want to talk to them as a group because of their emotional involvement," McLellan said in a telephone interview last night. "When we knew there was going to be a rally, I agreed with Mr. Fox that nothing's going to be accomplished by my talking to a mass group. I did talk to a few people, and I thought I established a good rapport with them," he added.

After talking with five students who had previously arranged for interviews, McLellan spoke individually to three SDS members. The demonstrators left at 11:15 a. m.

A group of 12 Eliot House students, including several Young Republicans, also assembled outside the OG and CP at 9 a. m. as counter-demonstrators.

"The reason was pretty much a free-speech type issue," Robert H. Lavietes '71. president of Harvard Young Republicans and one of the counter-demonstrators, said yesterday. "We had no specific plans. When the SDS people tried to force their way downstairs, we helped block them."

Explaining SDS tactics. Ira D. Helfand '72, a member of Harvard SDS. said, "We did as much to disrupt his [McLellan's] attempts at recruiting as we could. He wasn't going to leave, and we didn't think it was worth forcing in to see him. So we left. We had other things to do."

Asked if he would file charges with the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities. Fox called the suggestion "absurd."

"It involved three people for 30 seconds," Fox said. "The squeeze was a little harder than the subway during rush hour, but easier than getting on the Waverly bus."

McLellan was at the OG and CP as a representative of the Marine Corps Officer Selection Office to answer questions of potential applicants to the Marines' officer programs for graduate and undergraduate students.

Last night, members of SDS, UAG and NAC distributed a pamphlet, "The Case for Abolishing the CFIA." at a meeting of about 150 people in Lowell Lecture Hall. Five speakers discussed the CFIA and its relationship to American foreign policy.