First in a series of distinguished speakers from the practical arena of world polities, Karl Gruber, Austrian representative to the United Nations, will speak at an open forum in New Lecture Hall at 8 o'clock tonight.

Gruber, who is his country's Foreign Minister and was a leader of the resistance movement during the war, has recently achieved prominence by his handling of the Southern Tyrol hand-over in the Paris Peace Conference. He is now in the U. S. to seek Austrian admission to UN membership, a move which has been seconded by Secretary Byrnes.

Discussing the Student Council's plans for the lecture-series, Douglass Cater, chairman of the International affairs committee, said an effort would be made to bring to Cambridge men who knew first-hand the problems of world relations. "We'll try to substitute source material, that is, for the pressure group spokesmen you usually get in lectures like this," he stated.