Evening star., 1948-12-10
Question of Good Fuith

1t Is not hard to understand the SuSpl-
cions and the fears which lie behind the
desire of the House Committee on Un-
American Activities to pursue its own
espionage investigation.
This is the committee which, in the face
of obstacles in the form of a running
criticism from the President, has produced
the only concrete evidence that Com
munist spy ring had access to top secrets
in the State and perhaps other depart
mentS Had it not been for the committees
efforts the chances are the truth of this
business would never have been brought
to light, for the President and the Depart
ment of Justice were getting nowhere fast.
Now the committee believes the fruits
of it's efforts are threatened. And 1t is
not an unnatural belief. 1t has inforna-
ton that the Department OF Justice in
tends to have the New York grand jury
return it's first indictment against Whit
taker Chambers, the committees star wit
ness. The indictment is expected to charge
perjury. What then? If convicted, Cham
bers' value as a witness against any one
who might be indicted in connection with
the vastly more serious offense of divulging
state secrets would be greatly impaired.
This raises the possibility that the real
culprits, the official or officials within the
State Department who betrayed their
country, will go unconvicted and unpun-
ished. That would leave the committee
with no recourse except to make public
all of its evidence and leave 1t to the
people to Judge as to the good faith of the
Department of Justice.
At this juncture, however, another dlfn-
Guilty arises. Only yesterday the President
renewed his attack on the committee. In
his eyes, the House investigation is still
red herring and the committee is merely
seeking headlines. One hardly knows what
to make of this attitude. The evidence
proves beyond doubt that Communist
spy ring succeeded ten years ago In break
ing through this Governments security
defenses. The evidence strongly suggests
that important administrative officials
were faithless to their trust. Yet the Pres
ident, who has primary responsibility for
enforcement of the laws, continues his
effort to minimize the whole affair and
persists in trying to discredit the COM.
wants to leave it all to the Department OF
Justice, although there is every reason to
believe that If 1t had not been for the
successful work of the committee, the De-
partment of Justice would have accom-
plished exactly nothing.
Given this background 1t is not surpris-
ing that members of the committee are
putting two and two together. Evidently
they believe, first, that the Justice Depart
ment is trying to whitewash the officials
who gave out secrets to the Communists,
apd, second, that the President is con-
tinuing his effort to discredit the COM
mittee so that the public attitude will be
one of skepticism If and when it decides
to publish its own evidence.
It cannot be said that there is no basis
for these suspicious But neither can 1t
be said that the attempted whitewash
which the committee fears has come to
pass For all any one knows the Depart
ment of Justice may be acting in complete
good faith, and until the contrary is estah-
lished by events the committee is guilty
of serious error in its attacks on the grand
jury procedure.
In effect, 1t Is trying to coerce the grand
jury and dictate its course of action. This
is something that cannot be condoned in
any circumstances. The committee should
wait and see what the grand jury does.
Then will be the time to Judge whether
there has been a perversion of justice and
a betrayal of duty in this matter. If
events indicate that this is the case, then
the committee should open up with every
weapon in its arsenal, and 1t will have the
unqualified support of the overwhelming
majority Of the people.