Local Cops Irked By Red List Calls

Cambridge police have received a lot of phone calls lately. But according to headquarters, the calls made during the last week were from "cranks, crackpots, and the like."

It all started when City Councillor John D. Lynch stated to the Cambridge City Council at last Monday's session that Harvard professors and other Cambridge residents have "been constantly associated with Communist movements and the time is at hand for the people to stand up and be counted."

Lynch's motion authorized Chief of Police John R. King to ask the U. S. Department of Justice for a complete list of Communists living and working in Cambridge. Five of the nine councilmen accepted the measure although the opposition warned that the move would "instigate the greatest witch-hunt in history."

Despite this pessimism of the mayor and the other three, the five went ahead. They were momentarily stymied when they were informed that they would experience difficulty in getting the list of Communists, since even the U. S. Senate could not obtain such information.

Somebody, however, informed them that the Cambridge Police have had such a listing for quite some time.

Meanwhile, the councillors' attempts to obtain the list leaked out; this brought the phone calls. All of the callers gave the police names of people whom they alleged were Communists. The police say that all these tips have been fruitless since not one name given was not already on the list