Draft Objectors Are Provided For By FDR

Unlike the Draft Act of 1917, the present Selective Training and Service Act provides for those who conscientiously object without regard to any religious sect or organization. According to a memorandum by President Roosevelt sent to Dr. Clarence A. Dykstra, national director of selective service, the basis of deferment from combatant military and service is to be not only "religious training" but also "belief."

In order to help out all Harvard undergraduates who might come under this category, the University set up an Advisory Committee on Civil Rights last October. Since that time, the Committee reports that it has talked to approximately sixty students who determined to answer their registration questionaires with "conscientious objection." Probably many others who are objectors, however, will not be classified as such until their student deferment runs out at the end of this June.

Those who will be deferred on these grounds fall into two groups. The first class of objectors oppose service in combatant regiments or units of the army or navy.

The second group is made of those who oppose both combatant and non-combatant service, and they, if drafted, will be assigned to "work of national importance under civilian direction.