Anonymous Cards Urge HYRC To Disown Ex-President Peterson

Members of the Harvard Young Republican Club yesterday received in the mail anonymous engraved cards urging them to disown and discredit ex-president David F. Peterson '59 "for his negligible and insignificant contributions to Republicanism at Harvard." The card followed by two weeks a similarly engraved one praising Frederick P. Claussen '59, former vice-president, and Arthur I. Reade, Jr. '59, former secretary.

Several executives of the club offered suggestions as to who mailed the two pleas. "The cards might have been sent by former HYRC members who are still interested in our activities," commented Charles W. Long '62, operations director. "This has happened in past years."

Other club members feel that the evidence at hand suggests that Reade and Roger Annenberg '62, member of the Planning Committee, were responsible for the cards. Asked to comment on yesterday's accusation, Peterson noted that "an individual close to Annenberg and Reade informed me that they told him they were responsible."

Suspicions Underlined

Peterson's suspicions were underlined when Tom A. Alberg '62, another member of the Planning Committee, brought up the issue at last night's HYRC executive meeting.

"It takes quite a bit of nerve," Alberg remarked, "for people to send out letters in their own behalf and not sign them, but this can be expected from members of the squirt-gun set." Long later explained that "one day, in the exuberance of spring, a member of the club brought in a water gun and we started squirting each other."

After the meeting, Annenberg called the charges "false and erroneous." He added that they were probably spread by members of a different faction of the HYRC, but that if he offered any countercharges "it would only be taking a stab in the dark."