Smith Sells Stocks Linked To South Africa

Smith College last month sold almost $700,000 worth of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company stock because the company did not satisfactorily explain the rationale for construction of a new plant in South Africa.

The company built the plant in the white section of a segregated suburb of Pretoria, South Africa about two years ago, Ann E. Shanahan, news director of Smith, said yesterday.

"We decided to sell our stocks not because we were making an indictment on the company's social responsibility, but because it did not sufficiently explain its position to us," she added.

The Smith Board of Trustees, prompted by a student petition, wrote letters last spring to four companies with plants in South Africa, asking them to outline their personnel and management policies, Shanahan said.

The companies in which Smith held shares included International Business Machines, Caterpillar Tractor, General Motors, and Firestone.

The board of trustees received satisfactory responses from all the companies, but the board's investment committee sent an additional letter to Firestone asking that the company explain its decision to locate the plant in South Africa, Roger F. Murray, chairman of the investment committee, said yesterday.

"Firestones responses was very general and incomplete, focusing on the aconomic rather than the social issues involved," Murphy said. The investment committee unanimously decided the response was inadequate and decided to divest itself of the stock, he added.

Bernard W. Frazier, director of public relations for the Firestone Company in Akron, Ohio, said yesterday the company's replay was "adequate and responsive."

Firestone chose the location because it had the "industrial infrastructure of electric power, transportation, and other services needed for heavy industry, while the black section did not," Frazier added.

Harvard sold its Firestone stock six months ago for financial reasons," George W. Siguler, assistant treasurer, said yesterday