HRO's Scheduled Trip To Mexico Now Definite

Despite lingering financial difficulties and a lack of real U.S. Government support, the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra will definitely go to Mexico this summer.

Of the trip's $50,000 budget, $40,000 has already been raised, according to Albert K. Webster '58, HRO tour manager who returned from Mexico Tuesday. Earlier this year, the project had been in danger of collapsing because of lack of funds.

Webster broke down the sources of financial support for the one and one-half month trip as follows: an anonymous contribution of $10,000, another $10,000 from members of the orchestra and their parents, and $20,000 in 350 private contributions from "people in key positions in government and business circles in Boston, New York, Washington and Mexico itself."

The remaining $10,000, Webster said, will be raised through continued solicitation from the same sources, although the HRO "can still use help in getting the remainder."

Manager of the Glee Club's successful tour of the Far East last year, Webster expressed disappointment at the State Department's refusal to provide any funds for the orchestra's projected tour. "I was annoyed at the lack of understanding on the part of lower echelon bureaucrats," he stated.

Certain top-level officials are enthusiastic about the trip, Webster added. He named McGeorge Bundy, Special Assistant to the President, Richard Goodwin, Under Secretary of State for Latin American Political Affairs, and Arturo Morales, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Cultural Affairs, as examples.

Subsidy Deserved

"These men tried to help as much as they could," Webster asserted, "but they were bound by all sorts of regulations." Webster held that the HRO trip deserves Government subsidy for the very reason aid was refused: "Because we're just a bunch of students and amateurs.

Webster claimed that James Webb, U.S. Cultural Attache in Mexico City, had told him "if he had his way, trips such as ours would be the only kind that the Government would support."