The University of California's senior class will take the first step toward recovering the stolen Stanford Axe Wednesday when it is scheduled to appoint a special Axe-finding committee.

The renowned Stanford Axe was snatched from the men's clubroom of Stephens Union an the Berkeley campus last June. The old blade had been in UC custody since November of 1947. The last year Stanford won a Big Game was in 1946.

The Executive Committee of the Associated Students of the University of California has given the senior class council until Nov. 27 to find the Axe. The committee hopes the Axe will be recovered by Big Game Rally time on the UC campus.

ASUC president Ralph Vetterlein, in a hopeful note, said, "If anybody can get the Axe, the senior class can."

A UC custodian discovered the blade was missing from the trophy case in Stephens Union on June 10. A window had been broken and forced open and the hasp had been filed from the back of the trophy case.

Lying on a lounge was a polished plaque -- minus the Axe -- on which the blade had been mounted. A $5 bill was lying on a radiator near the broken window, apparently as payment for the damage.

No further clues have been reported since then.

Some earlier reports indicated the Axe was still in Berkeley and would turn up in due course.

Suspicion was directed for a time at Stanford, where, according to rumors, the Farm's championship baseball team had borrowed the Axe and had taken it to the Nationals in Omaha for display there.

A team spokesman, questioned about the theft, replied, "What Axe?" It didn't turn up in Omaha, he said, and there the matter rested as far as Stanford was concerned. The Axe is traditionally presented to the winner of the Annual Big Game.