UN Council's Invitation To Lattimore Allowed

Despite unofficial warnings from the Dean's Office, the United Nations Council has invited Owen Lattimore to speak at Harvard next term.

Dean Robert D. Watson '37 said last night that he had personally advised U.N. Council president Duncan H. Cameron '54 to reconsider the group's invitation to Lattimore. Watson stressed that his advice was not to be construed as pressure, He added that in allowing the Council to ask Lattimore he was following an established University policy that a recognized group can invite anyone and that person will be allowed to speak.

Watson said, however, that he had told Cameron that, in his opinion, Lattimore's appearance would be more "harm than help to Harvard." "At the present time, with Harvard in the limelight, the Council could get another speaker who would contribute as much to the discussion on China and would not bring added unfavorable publicity to the College," Watson added.

Cameron said last night that the Council's invitation to Lattimore had been sent in September "before we could know the publicity Harvard would get this fall." Cameron said Lattimore was invited because "the Council believes that Lattimore has something to contribute to a discussion of the Far East."

Lattimore accepted the Council's invitation, but advised club members to check with the Dean's Office to make certain there was no official objection. Lattimore since has written that he will speak on "The Place of Asia in American Thought." Lattimore added that "I use the word 'thought' rather than 'policy' advisedly for reasons I shall make clear."

Cameron said that the Council was uncertain whether other guests will be invited to speak with Lattimore. Watson had recommended to the Council that they try to balance their programs with conservative speakers as well as liberals. No definite date has been set for Lattimore's speech, but he will appear during the latter part of February or early March, Cameron said.

Lattimore has been a professor at Johns Hopkins University and a former editor of "Pacific Affairs," the official publication of the Institute of Pacific Relations. He is indicted on two counts for perjury during his hearing in 1950 before the McCarran Committee. Lattimore had testified at that time to answer charges by Senator Joseph McCarthy that Lattimore was "the top Soviet espionage agent in this country."