Voters Approve Referendum Questions

Incomplete returns show that voters in two Massachusetts senate districts approved a proposition Tuesday instructing their senators to urge Congress to grant unconditional amnesty to Vietnam draft resisters and deserters.

The proposition appeared on ballots in five state districts and received a 51-percent majority in the overall vote.

Stephen W. Mamus '76, coordinator of Harvard-Radcliffe Students for Amnesty, yesterday called the referendum a "glorified Gallup poll."

Although the resolution could have been brought to the Massachusetts House without a referendum, Mamus said that the vote will demonstrate for the legislature a "majority of popular support."

He said the success of the referendum would help his group to garner proamnesty support from such politicians as Senators Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D-Mass.) and Edward M. Brooke (R-Mass.).

"Two years ago, 14 per cent of the country was for unconditional amnesty," Mamus said. "A recent gallup poll showed 41 percent of the country favors unconditional amnesty. By the '76 elections we hope to have over 50 per cent of the country for unconditional amnesty."

George Wald, Higgins Professor of Biology and a faculty-sponsor of Students for Amnesty, last night called the success of the referendum "very heartening."

The majority vote showed that "the people of Massachusetts are humane and decent," Wald said. "They never backed the war and don't want to punish people who stayed out of it."