'Coup' Evokes Protests Of Disarmament Group

Former officers of the Harvard-Radcliffe Committee to Study Disarmament yesterday denounced vigorously the motives and tactics of the new Council Against Appeasement, which overthrew the Study Committee in a "coup" Wednesday night.

Linda S. Mirin '59, founder of the Committee, and William M. Bennett '61, vice-chairman until the "coup," said they would ask the Harvard and Radcliffe student councils and administrations to refuse official recognition to the Council Against Appeasement.

"That the action taken last night is flagrantly unconstitutional," Miss Mirin said, "there is no doubt. What worries me most is that there should be at Harvard so large a group of individuals whose twisted values lead them to believe that there should exist no undergraduate organization whose opinion is not their own, whose actions they do not control."

Bennett outlined the tactics which Dennis L. White '60, chairman of the former Committe to Study Disarmament, used in conducting the overthrow meting. Because a member had to attend two consecutive subcommittee meetings to gain voting status, Bennett said White employed the following method to gain 13 new members:

"The chairman consulted the Committee records to find out what subcommittee he chaired and adjourned it. He called a second meeting of the Political Sub-committee and adjourned it. The chairman declared the 13 new members full members."

Constitution Amended

In a 13-5 vote, the membership then amended the Constitution to change the group into a Council Against Appeasement, "to promote a united stand against Communist aggression."

White said last night, "I can state with certainty that a majority of those attending the organizational meeting of the Committee to Study Disarmament last spring were opposed to disarmament as an impracticality. These people came back last night and democratically gave the Committee an ideology."

David F. Peterson '60, president of the Harvard Young Republican Club, disavowed any connection between his organization and the "coup."