Diers-In Get Thirty Days

Eight participants in the April 22 "Die-In" at Logan Airport received jail sentences of 30 days each and fines totalling $700 Monday in East Boston District Court. A ninth defendant-the demonstration's organizer-was sentenced to one year in jail and $400 in fines.

State police arrested the nine on Earth Day on charges of disorderly conduct and trespassing, while dispersing a group of about 100 people who had assembled in the TWA lobby that evening to protest construction of the SST.

All nine defendants are appealing their sentences. A lawyer from the Boston Legal Assistance Project is handling their defense. The Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union is giving them special assistance in their appeal.

Assault Trial Continues

The day-old trial of two former Harvard students charged with assault and battery on Dean Watson during the University Hall occupation will continue in Middlesex County Superior court at 10 a.m. this morning.

John C. Berg, a fifth-year graduate student, and James T. Kilbreth III '69-both separated from the University for their role in last spring's demonstration-face possible two-and-a-half-year prison terms if convicted.

A third former student-Carl D. Offner, a third-year graduate student dismissed for his part in the seizure of University Hall-has been sentenced to four months in the state House of Correction for grabbing Watson's elbow during the occupation. Offner is now appealing his conviction.

Berg and Kilbreth, who are conducting their own defense, contended yesterday in court that they were being tried "not because Watson was so outraged that his elbow was being touched, but because it was a political act."

They were repeatedly overruled by the Superior Court judge, who told them to "confine yourselves to the evidence which you intend to produce, and not run into political arguments."

Deferments for Peace Corps

Local draft boards received a Selective Service memorandum on Monday making the Peace Corps the only exception to President Nixon's April 23 decision to stop granting H-A occupational deferments.

Colonel Paul F. Feeney, deputy director of the Massachusetts Selective Service System, said the memorandum of National Director Curtis W. Tarr was dated April 23 but that local draft boards did not receive it until May 4.

The memorandum states. "To avoid undue hardship upon the Peace Corps, any registrant who is accepted for Peace Corps training which is to begin during the remainder of 1970 will be entitled to a postponement of induction for the initial tour of service [two years] in the Peace Corps."

John B. Fox '59, director of the Office of Graduate and Career Plans, said, "It seems to me kind of a modest statement. Having induction postponed won't be the same as having it abolished, unless by then the war is over."