Tonis Admits Helping Customs Inquiry Here

Robert Tonis, chief of the University Police, acknowledged yesterday that he had accompanied two federal customs agents to a meeting of the Harvard Radcliffe Socialist Club Wednesday night, and that he had introduced the agents to Albert L. Maher '63-2, whom they wished to interrogate.

In a related development, Dean Watson categorically denied a report yesterday that his office had been "cooperating" with FBI investigators seeking information about the Second of May Movement, which is currently applying for University recognition.

Tonis, who was himself with the FBI for 27 years before joining the University Police, said he had been called by the customs agents who told him they were "looking for a film which had been smuggled into the country as contraband."

A film prepared by the Viet Cong was to be shown at the Socialist Club meeting. The agents told Tonis that they had heard about the showing, and that they were anxious to find out if this was the smuggled film. Tonis said he agreed to help them contact the group sponsoring the film.

Tonis explained yesterday that it was the policy of the University Police to cooperate with the Customs Service, the Justice Department, the FBI, and other recognized law enforcement agencies. He added, however, that University Police files would not be open to such investigators.

Dean Watson said yesterday that the FBI often notified his office if it wanted to interrogate an undergraduate. He indicated that the FBI usually arranged its own meetings with students under investigation, but that on occasions in the past his office had arranged such meetings.

He stressed that the agents never revealed the subject matter of their investigations to him, and that they were never shown any confidential records.

"It would be a terrible thing if we gave out that information," Watson said. University dealings with the FBI are "with a view toward helping and protecting students, not to help the FBI," he added.

Student Questioned

The issue came up when an officer of the Harvard Radcliffe Socialist Club reported yesterday that he had been called into Watson's office last October, and was told that a friend of Watson's--who was an FBI agent--wished to talk with him.

A meeting was arranged, and on Oct. 19, the student met with two agents in front of the Lampoon Building. They questioned him about the Second of May Movement, which he had helped to organize. The student noted that the agents were "polite," and that they accepted his refusal to give them information.

Dean Watson indicated yesterday that he had been contacted by an FBI agent who wished to interrogate the student. Watson said he had simply wanted to notify the student that the FBI was investigating him.

Watson said he was "not at all concerned about subversion at Harvard," and that he was "certainly not trying to clarp down on liberal organizations.