Calkins Releases South African Data

Hugh Calkins '45, chairman of the Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (CCSR), said yesterday he will make public responses to a letter he has sent to all corporations in the Harvard investment portfolio that operate in South Africa, asking for details of their labor and management practices in that country.

Calkins said he originally gave the responses to the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR), but decided to release the letters to the public when Peter W. Sacks '80, a member of the Southern Africa Solidarity Committee, asked him to do so.

The four-inch stack of letters, which will go on reserve at Lamont Library in the next few days, contains "many helpful and informative responses, but others are too general to tell us what is really going on," Calkins said.

The CCSR, which is composed of four members of the Harvard Corporations, makes investment decisions for the University after considering the advice of the ACSR.

Calkins said the CCSR has not yet discussed Harvard's investments in firms operating in South Africa. The group is waiting for the ACSR's report before it begins debating the issue, he added.

The University "prefers to write letters or vote on shareholder resolutions. We're reluctant to initiate a shareholder resolution, but if someone else does, we can't avoid it so we take a stand," Calkins said.

"Divestiture is a remedy down the road, not something you do first," he added.

Walter M. Cabot '55, Deputy Treasurer of the University, said yesterday he believes "the Corporation wouldn't divest itself of securities in any corporation for social reasons alone."

"Cabot shouldn't be speaking for the Corporation," Calkins said. "We've made no decisions yet at all.