Anti-Draft Rally To Collect Cards

A local anti-draft group will hold a rally Saturday morning in the Yard, at which an undetermined number of men plan to turn in their draft cards.

The rally-scheduled for 11 a. m. on the steps of Memorial Church-has been planned by the Boston-area chapter of the Union for National Draft Opposition (UNDO).

UNDO. a national group with head-quarters at Princeton, was formed early this month to coordinate anti-draft efforts. An UNDO representative said last night that since President Nixon's invasion of Cambodia, 14,000 men have turned in their draft cards-more than the national total for the previous two years.

The local UNDO group will hold the cards it collects tomorrow until a national anti-draft convocation at Princeton next week decides what to do with cards collected nationally.

Federal law makes non-possession of a draft card punishable by 5 years in prison and/or a $10,000 tine. But recent commonis by government officials suggest that prosecution is unlikely.

Col. Paul Feeney. deputy state director of the Selective Service, said this week that "our attitude is that if a card is reported turned in, we cannot assume that the registrant turned it in. He might have dropped it and someone else could have picked it up. Or it might not be a valid card."

There will be three speakers at tomorrow's rally: John Elder, assistant director for field education at the Divinity School; Claudette Piper, associate national director of RESIST and one of the "Boston Eight" recently involved in draft file destruction; and Peter Irons, a teaching fellow at B. U. who has served 26 months in jail for refusing induction. James M. Fallows '70 will chair the rally.