THE GRAHAM SPEECH

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I hope it is not too late to correct two misimpressions conveyed by your report of Dr. Frank Graham's speech to the Winthrop House Forum last week.

First, Dr. Graham did not say that the French and Russians were "correct" in not paying their assessments (as the headline reported) nor did he even say that they were technically correct (as the body of the story said). What he did say was that their position can be justified by a strict interpretation of the Charter, an interpretation with which he personally disagrees, but which gives the Franco-Russian position a firmer legal basis than most Americans realize. To say, that a particular political position can be justified by a strict construction of some fundamental law is quite a different thing from saying that it is even "technically correct." In short, Dr. Graham was agreeing with the World Court that the French and Russians had erred in trying to read the Charter too narrowly; he was disagreeing only with those Americans who interpreted the non-payment as a wholly lawless act incapable of any rational justification.

Second, while Dr. Graham did express opposition to demonstrations which block highways, he made it clear that he was referring only to incidents such as the proposed stall-in at the World's Fair, or the obstruction of traffic on the Triborough Bridge. He gave his explicit endorsement to recent march from Selma to Montgomery, a distinction which I believe is unclear in your article. Barney Frank   Asst. Sr. Tutor