72 Turn in Draft Cards Saturday To Join in National UNDO Effort

Seventy-two men turned in their draft cards at a rally in the Yard Saturday morning to dramatize their opposition to the draft and to the war in Southeast Asia.

The rally was sponsored by the Boston-area chapter of the Union for National Draft Opposition (UNDO), a national group with headquarters at Princeton which was formed early this month to coordinate anti-draft efforts.

There were three speakers-John D. Elder. associate director of field education at the Divinity School; Claudette Piper. associate national director of RESIST and one of the Boston Eight recently involved in draft file destruction; and Peter Irons, a teaching fellow at B. U. who has served 26 months in jail for refusing induction-at the rally which was chaired by James M. Fallows '70.

Second Chance

An UNDO representative said yesterday that the group will again accept draft cards at 2 p. m. Wednesday in the Yard-probably on the steps of Memorial Church-and that Saturday's rally was "only the first in a series."

The draft cards turned in Saturday are being held by the local UNDO group until a national convocation Tuesday in Princeton decides what should be done with the cards collected nationally.

After the national UNDO meeting ends Thursday, those men who have turned in their cards will have the option of abiding by the decision of the convocation or retrieving their cards and taking action on a personal basis.

The UNDO representative said the goal of the group is 50,000 cards by the opening of the convocation Tuesday.

Since President Nixon's announcement of his decision to invade Cambodia 17 days ago, more than 14,000 men have turned in their draft cards-exceeding the national total for the previous two years.

Federal law makes non-possession of a draft card punishable by five years in prison and or a $10,000 fine. But recent comments by government officials suggest that prosecution is unlikely.

Coll Paul Feeney deputy state director of the Selective Service, said last week that "our attitude is that if a card is reported turned in, we cannot assume that the registrant turned it in. He might have dropped it and someone else could have picked it up. Or it might not be a valid card.