AYFO Will Pick Group to Attend Vienna Festival

The American Youth Festival Organization will sponsor a delegation to the Seventh World Youth Festival in Vienna this summer, Richard van Frank, New England representative of the organization, announced yesterday.

"We are the only American organization in connection with the Festival which has sent a representative to Washington to discuss the Festival with members of the State Department and Congress," van Frank asserted, adding that the group received "neutral support" from the Department.

The AYFO has also obtained official recognition from the International Preparatory Committee, located in Moscow, which is planning the Festival.

Acknowledging Communist sponsorship of the Festival, van Frank said that, "Nevertheless, Americans who participate in the Festival are not necessarily victims of or party to Comunist propaganda."

"We are trying to convince the youth of the world that American youth is vitally concerned with preserving world peace," van Frank explained. He will provide further information on the Festival at 9 Sacramento St.

The AYFO, whose headquarters are located in Chicago, recently withdrew from association with the U.S. Festival Committee in New York, also sponsoring a delegation to Vienna, because of the "unrepresentative, partisan nature" of the group, van Frank noted.

AYFO members have no connection with the Independent Service for Information about the Vienna Youth Festival, formed in Cambridge last November, or with the Youth Festival Committee.