Mr. Justice Felix Frankfurter returned to Cambridge yesterday, and in keeping with a Harvard tradition set by Holmes, Brandeis, and Cardozo, former professor Frankfurter appointed Fretwell Prichard, Jr. a third year Law School student, as his secretary for next year.

The former professor in the Law School left Cambridge last winter to take up his duties as a Supreme Court Justice in Washington, which he reports is not a harder job than teaching.

He has returned to his old home on Brattle Street "to round out the year." He plans to sail with Mrs. Frankfurter on June 14 on the Normandie. The Justice will go to Oxford University to receive an honorary degree.

Names Princeton Graduate

His newly appointed secretary in the meantime was studying for a final examination today. Prichard graduated from Princeton in 1934. While at Princeton he was a member of the Princetonian board that inaugurated the Harvard- Yale- Princeton conference on Public Affairs.

He was Chairman of the Princetonian during his Senior year and he is now a member of the Law Review. He will be Mr. Frankfurter's secretary for one year. This custom of appointing a high ranking Law School graduate was began by the late Justice Holmes.

Justice Frankfurter did not take part in the Court's decision on the Hague case which was announced yesterday. He pointed out his close affiliation with the Civil Liberties Committee which was involved in the case.

The Justice will return from his European trip before the end of the summer to take up his duties in Washington. The Supreme Court will reopen for hearings on the first Monday of October.