About 500 women, children, and Brandeis and Harvard students marched to the Watertown Arsenal yesterday afternoon as part of the nationwide "strike for peace."

After waiting 45 minutes for police permission, the 200 from Cambridge set out, many carrying signs, such as "I want to be a mommy some day" and "Mommy, why do people want to hurt other people?" They met the Brandeis group, which had spent the morning distributing leaflets in Waltham, at the Arsenal, and as darkness fell, they heard brief speeches.

Among the speakers was Jack Wollens, New England Regional Coordinator of Turn Toward Peace, who compared the student activities to sit-ins, and urged such further steps as mass marches to Hyannisport and Washington. All of the speakers emphasized that yesterday's march must become the beginning for well planned efforts to stop atmospheric testing.

Robert Gussner, a minister from Stoughton, declared that "the two great powers must stop imitating each other." "It is not funny," he said, "to be in a radioactive field without toilet paper."

Ironic Sign Displayed

Ironically, a large sign displayed by the Arsenal--which produces nuclear weapons--read "We're interested in everybody's safety, especially yours."

In other protest activity yesterday, over 1000 students at the University of California staged a 24-hour vigil, while in 20 cities, mothers and children carried on a full day of urging the citizenry to write President Kennedy expressing their opposition to nuclear tests.