New Reports Say Walesa Won't Come

The day after Harvard announced that Polish labor leader Lech Walesa had accepted an invitation to speak at the University's Commencement exercises, three separate press dispatches from Europe yesterday reported that Walesa does not plan to make the trip to Cambridge.

But University officials continued to stress that in the absence of any direct turndown from Walesa, they are still holding out hope that he will deliver the June 9 Commencement address.

The Associated Press yesterday quoted Walesa as saying. "I'd love to go," and adding. "But my decision today is no, because of the problem in returning."

In addition, a spokesman for Radio Free Europe in Washington, D.C., said the agency had aired a dispatch in which Walesa's wife. Danuta, said she planned to notify Harvard today of her husband's decision not to travel to the United States.

In the report, which the radio agency attributed to the Reuters news service's Warsaw bureau. Danuta Walesa cited her husband's fears that Communist authorities would prevent him from returning to Poland, the spokesman said.

The AP also released an earlier interview with an unidentified woman who said, from Walesa's Gdansk home. "He will be unable to travel there for well-known reasons.... He is simply not sure that he would be able to cross the Polish border in both directions.

Harvard Remains Hopeful

But Robin Schmidt, Harvard's vice president for government and community affairs, said yesterday. "We're still hopeful that he'll be our Commencement speaker." Schmidt said that Harvard's only direct word from Walesa so far is a March 5 letter that states, in Polish, his acceptance of Harvard's invitation.

"We've had more than one confirmation" of Walesa's acceptance, Schmidt added, refusing to explain how Harvard received its supplementary information about the labor leader's intentions. But as long as Harvard has no further word from Walesa, the University is not giving up on the possibility that he will come to Commencement Schmidt said.

At that time of Schmidt's comments, the only press reports from Poland about Walesa were the interview with the unidentified woman at Walesa's home and a United Press International bulletin Thursday in which he reported said, "No, I am not going.

Walesa was released in November from confinement that began a year earlier, when the Communist government imposed martial Law in Poland.

Polish specialists have said that Gan. Wojciech Jaruzelski's regime is probably eager to see the 39-year-old electrician emigrate from his homeland, thus weakening his still-powerful influence on Polish workers.

The AP also quoted Walesa as saying that his letter from Harvard mentioned the possibility that the University would grant him an honorary degree, adding that he would be pleased to receive it by proxy.

Told that Harvard policy requires honorary degree recipients to attend Commencement exercises. Walesa said, "So I would be the first" to break with the tradition. He added.

I'd love to be the first, although I'm really sorry I most probably won't be able to be there in person," the AP reports.

Four consecutive telephone calls yesterday morning from The Crimson to Walesa's home in Gdansk went dead in all four occasions immediately after a party answered the call.

David M. Rosen. Harvard's director of public relations, emphasized yesterday that Walesa carefully qualified his refusals in the AP interview. Rosen pointed to the fact that be spoke of his decision "today" and said he most probably" would not attend.

"That is not a definite no," said Rosen What would he say tomorrow or next week" Familiar with all of yesterday's reports except the Radio Free Europe dispatch. Rosen still said, "I think our position remains the same. There was an exchange of letters and a conversation through an intermediary."

He added. "Our conclusion that he had accepted was not based only on his letter but on at least one oral conversation."

But Rosen said. "The invitation is clearly more in doubt today than it was yesterday."

Fordham Offer

A member of the board of trustees of Fordham University yesterday confirmed that the New York City Catholic institution also offered Walesa an honorary degree.

The trustee, who refused to be identified added, "the last information was that Fordham would issue the degree in this particular case in aboinfla," a move that would be unusual, if not unprecedented.

Two officials at the Polish Brabassy in Washington said yesterday they thought Walesa would have no trouble in obtaining permission to travel to the United States and return to Poland. The officials, who insisted on anonymity, suggested that Walesa's reported decision might stem from personal reasons.

One such reason, they speculated, could be Pope John Paul II's scheduled mid-June visit to Warsaw. Some specialists have said Walesa may fear that a trip to the United States could disrupt the Pope's plans, possibly by creating such a volatile atmosphere in Poland that authorities there would cancel the pontiff's visit.

But the embassy officials said Walesa might simply be reluctant to travel to the United States for fear that he would not be able to return to Poland in time to see the Pope, a former Polish cardinal.

The officials added that the embassy has played no role in Harvard's invitation to Walesa. Harvard administrators said Thursday they extended the invitation to Walesa without informing the United States government