Evening star., 1945-11-12
Pearl Hurbor Protests


nority and majority members of the
congressional Pearl Harbor Investi-
eating Committee, which is sched-
uled to begin public hearings this
Thursday, can hardly be considered
to mark an auspicious opening for
this important inquiry.
Minority members of the commit
tee, particularly Senators Brewster
of Maine and Ferguson of Michigan,
have sought the right, as individual
members of the committee, to exam
Inc any Government records bearing
on the Pearl Harbor attack. This
has been opposed by administra-
ton forces, and as the matter stands
the President has specifically en-
Joined all Federal employees, military
or civilian, against making available
to individual committee members
"any files or written material"
The effect of this, according to
the minority members, is to hamper
and limit them in their effort to ac-
quire background material needed
for intelligent questioning and cross
questioning of witnesses. Certainly
1t Is rather surprising procedure.
AS Senator Wheeler pointed out last
week, it has not been the practice
Of Senate committees to refuse to
let an individual member look over
the files in any Government depart
ment. The Montana Senator re-
called that he was a minority mem
Der of the committee investigating
Attorney General Daugherty's de-
partment. His request for access to
certain records of the Department of
Justice was refused. But President
Coolidge, far from supporting his At
torney General, forced him to re-
sign, and the records which Senator
Wheeler wanted were made avail
able. And, he told his colleagues
last week, without them the investi-.
cation would have been a complete
failure. 1t is worth noting also that
when President Truman was in the
Senate the investigating committee
which bore his name permitted its
individual members wide latitude in
investigation Of matters related to
the conduct of the war. Certainly,
there was no evidence of restraints
such as that which has now been
laid upon the individual members OF
the Pearl Harbor Committee.
All Of this is unfortunate and
probably unwise in that it is apt to
impair public confidence in the COM
mittee's work. Superficially, it will
appear to many that the admins
tration-and after all 1T is the ad-
ministration which is being investi-
gated-is using it's dominant posi-
ton to hamstring the minority
members, who might be expected to
have the greater interest in a
searching and relentless investiga-
tion.
Actually, there is no evidence that
either the President or any ma
jority member of the committee has
been influenced by desire to con-
ceal anything. All records are open
to the committee, as distinguished
from individual members, and the
highly respected committee counsel,
former Republican Attorney General
William D. Mitchell, has been given
full access to all documents and all
witnesses. In this situation, there is
small chance that the investigation
could become whitewash, even If
that were desired. This does not
alter the fact, however, that some
basis for suspicion has been estab-
lished, and it may be wondered
whether this does not more than off,
set any desirable end that may be
achieved by denying the Republican
members OF the committee direct
access to records they want to
examine.