The Wilmington morning star., 1946-03-10
Fair Enough
Rv WEsTBRooK PEGLER
copyright 1916, BY King Features syndicate)

cations men who, in civiilan LIE, mad been
active in such propaganda, ! nave since then,
| step by STEP endeavored to prove up by identi-
fyine individuals. My original statement was
hased mot only on ny oWa observation but
nm the word of a general OF Army Intelligence
who said tae extreme left wing, including
the communists, early in the game sehemed
| to Mace their friends on these CT papers 30
that thew could disrupt discipline and impose
on the CTS with propaganda. he mace thls
statement before the disorders broke out.
Readers of these dispatches may recan Laat
John Lord, a staff writer on the feopie
World, of San Francisco, wrote a story IN
which he said that the American Gl hated
his own ofeieers-all of them-much more
than he ever hated the Japs The People
World is communist paper and Ne COM
muaist line at present calls Tor the aisos-
ganization of American fighting power and, IN
particular, for the mediation OF rebellion
against command by the CPS.
The Peoples World described Joha Lord as
sergeant and said he had been editor OF
the Mid-Pacifican. the second largest Army
newspaper in the world published in Homo
lulu. The title of the story was ''Way Soldiers
Hate Officers" The Peoples World also said
that LORD never was editor Of the Mid.Pa-
Daily News published at lie Shima under bat
tie conditions.
Lieut.. Gen. Robert L. Richardson, COM
mander OF the Army in the Mid-P acific, states
that Lord never was editor of the MidPa-
cifican but was, for a time, a rewrite man
on the paper, without executive authority.
General Richardson states that Lord has a
number of aliases He was removed from
the Mid-Pacifiean staff in Feb. 1945, about
the time that slanted political question, of
the familiar communist type, was presented
to number of soldiers, ostensibly picked at
random but obviously hand-picked as the
work of the inquiring reporter.
Whether it is true that ne later worked
his way into the editorship of the lie Shirna
Daily News do not yet know If he did,
that fact would tend to verify my original
charge.
It may be stated further that the Mid-Pa.
cific command has made a careful inquiry
into the record Of Sgt. David Livingston, a
leader Of the recent demonstrations in Homo
lulu who was selected" by an organized
spontaneous" rally of soldiers to 60 to Wash
ington to express soldier grievances to COM
mittee of the Senate. His activities now are
being watched carefully.
Since the rally in Honolulu an article has
been published in the Union Voice, the of
fetal paper of Local 6 of the Retail and
Wholesale Workers Union Of the CLIO. of
which David Livingston is president This
union Is extreme left wing in its politics.
Discussing the Honolulu disorders, the arti.
SIC WIlttSn py SSt. OdVlQ Livingston SAID.
| The demonstrations were touched off at least
partly by the fear that American troops were
being kept in the Army to perform functions
which would split us off from our allies
In this connection it is fair to speculate as
to which ally would be offended by the mainte-
nance of American fighting strength and the
occupation Of Pacific defenses. Certainly Brit
ain would not be offended but the reduction
OF American strength would il no way dis
please Soviet Russia.
Now we return to the case Of Sgt Ken
Pettus, managing editor of the Stars and
Stripes in Tokyo who recently was relieved
and ordered to Okinawa following "a negative
report loyalty check" When that order
came through II other members Of the staff
protested to General Macarthur.
Sgt. Ken Pettus was identified as a reporter
in civil life in Tacoma, Wash.
In 1910, Ken Pettus was editor of the Timber
Worker, the official paper of the International
| Wood Workers Of America of the CLIO Dur.
ing the 1910 convention of that union, the late
Worth LoWery, then vice-president and later
president, charged that under Pettus the
paper had lost many readers because 1t car
rled propaganda outside the problems of the
unlon' AS an example, he referred to pub
licity given peace mobilization in Chicago
during the period when the American COM
munists were opposing the draft and all prep
were then allies. The next year Lowery was
elected president on an anti-communist plat
form and Pettus was relieved
Ken Pettus is a brother of Terry Pettus. of
Seattle, Identified by the Dies Committee as
editor and an incorporation of the New World
published by the Free Press Publishing com.
paay, OF Seattle. The Dies Committee's Of.
fetal report to Congress charged that the
New World was an organ OF communist prop
uganda and gave citations which, in the view
OF the committee, identified Terry Pettus as
a sympathizer with the communist movement.
Hugh De Lacy, Congressman, from the
state of Washington, is listed as president of
the Free Press Corporation. And further ref
erences in the Dies report state
That De Lacy was formerly a member of
the Seattle City Council; president of the
American Committee of the Foreign Born, de-
scribed as a communist front; an officer of
| the American Peace Mobilization, similarly
described, which opposed American prepared
ness during the Hitler-Stalin alliance; signer
of proclamation in 1941, shortly before Hit
Ter attacked Russia, accusing President
Roosevelt of dragging us into war 5000
miles away and a signer OF demand for
the release of Earl Browder, then chief Of
! the American communists, who was In prison
for passport fraud. How Ken Pettus be-
Lcame managing editor of the Stars and Stripes
!. in Tokyo, / do not know but submit that
the foregoing also tends to prove my original
i charge of infiltration in the GI press
Russia in self-defense has every moral
riob+ n seelr atomic bomb secrets through