In an off-the-record address at the annual Eliot House Dinner last night, Archibald MacLeish discussed the problem of the reconciliation of President Truman's message on aid to Greece and Turkey with the declared purposes of the United Nations Economic, Social, and Cultural Organization.

Speaking on the eve of his departure for Paris, where he will head the United States delegation to UNESCO, MacLeish won an ovation from an initially hostile audience as he emphasized that the primary strength of this country's position must always rest on the positive affirmation of the American democratic purpose and of American democratic ideals.

UNESCO's Aim

MacLeish, a Harvard Law School graduate, first curator of the Nieman Fellows, and former Librarian of Congress, was further reported as saying that UNESCO is committed to the proposition that peoples holding opposing and conflicting views can live together if they understand each other's positions.

President Truman's declaration of policy, on the other hand, seems to assume an inescapable conflict between the two principal ideas now struggling for the mastery of the age: democracy and communism.

Other speakers included Henry L. Shattuck '01, member of the corporation, who stressed the individual's responsibility to participate actively in local and state government. Previously, John H. Finley '25, Master of Eliot House, discussed the Harvard problem of reconciling conflicting university and college traditions. The Houses, he said, have the main responsibility in developing personal and unifying aspects otherwise neglected at Harvard.