Navy Refuses to Change 'Loyalty Oath' Wording

A special meeting in Washington yesterday agreed not to change the wording of the "informer clause" of the Navy's loyalty oath, and in addition it decided to interpret the word "others' 'as broadly as possible.

Since last weekend the Navy Department has been conducting a study of the loyalty oath clause that requires Navy men (including Harvard NROTC students) to name everyone they know whom they have seen at functions of any group listed by the Justice Department as subversive.

In a telegram to the CRIMSON yesterday, the Bureau of Naval Personnel said, "No change is currently contemplated in the wording of the loyalty certificate.

"The word 'others'," the wire continued, "refers to all other persons, regardless of Naval or academic affiliations within the recollection of the individual who are personally known by him and who are also personally known him to be or to have been similarly associated or acting."

Unsure of Application

Before yesterday, the Navy had been unsure of the proper interpretation of the clause. But in Washington last night the Navy's candidate training director Comm. L. C. Heinz said he thought the Navy could now "start applying the clause now that the point of controversy has been cleared up." But Heinz was not sure what this application would mean.

At Harvard, the Student Council, the Liberal Union, and the American Veterans Committee have written Washington on the matter, but none of these groups have yet received any replies.