Heads of Alumni Association Okay Selection of Plaque as University's War Memorial

The directors of the Alumni Association unanimously approved the choice of a plaque, to cost between $60,000 and $75,000, as the University's World War If memorial in a meeting Saturday night at the Harvard Club of Boston.

The proposal to build a tablet in Memorial Church next to the names of Harvard's World War I dead now must go to the executive board of the Associated Harvard Clubs, which is scheduled to meet tomorrow to consider the plan.

At its meeting Saturday, the Alumni Association directors followed the report of the Saltonstall Committee, which recommended that "the names of the men lost in World War II be inscribed on one wall of the Memorial Church adjacent to that of the first World War Memorial, a project which the Committee believes could be carried out with great dignity, simplicity, and beauty. . . ."

Five Dissents

The meeting also heard a variety of letters objecting to adoption of the Salton-stall Committee's report.

These came from the Student Council; Richard G. Axt '46, student representative on the Saltonstall Committee; Daniel P. S. Paul '46, of the Alumni Committee for a University Memorial Activities Center; the University chapter of the American Veterans Committee; and the House Committees of the five Houses.

Those dissents urged selection of a student activities center or some other "utilitarian" project as a war memorial, and recommended that the directors poll the alumni before taking final action on the selection of a memorial.

Twenty-one of the Alumni-Association's 28 directors were present at the meeting Saturday.

The objections to a plaque as a war memorial will also be presented to the executive board of the Associated Harvard Clubs when the board meets tomorrow to consider the Saltonstall report.