Evening star., 1949-03-22
State Department Ban
On 12Peace Delegates
Seems 10 Be Final
BY the Associotsd Press

SVVlIlS ~ OV ] IuUI
By the Assoeiotsd Press
NEW YORK, Mar. 22.-Twelve
foreign delegates to world
peace" conference here lacked
visas today to enter this coun-
try. The State Department in
dicated it would not shift its stand
on the order. ...
Four Britons whom the State
Department will not let into the
country for the conference are j.
D. Bernal. scientists; j. G. Crow
theirs, historian; Louis Golding,
novelist, and Patricia Burke,
actress.
The only British delegate grant,
ed visa by the American En-
bassy in London was Olaf Staple
ton. philosopher.
The State Department predicts
the conference opening here Fri
day will be turned into a forum
for spreading Communist propa-
ganda. 1t has granted permission
to attend to seven Russians and
Is other delegates sponsored by
Eastern European Communists
governments.
Shapley Denies Charges.
Conference sponsors denied the
department charges. DR.. Harlow
Shapley. the conference chair
man, protested the departments
action.
Meanwhile. an opposition con-
ference group. Americans for In
tellectual Freedom. challenged DR..
Shapley to make public immedi-
ately a list of financial contribu-
tors to the organization.
4, 1T is obvious" the group said
ina statement, that the so-called
Cultural and Scientific Conference
for World Peace is operating on
an extraordinarily opulent budget.
1t is obvious that tens of thou
sands of dollars are being spent
by this organization and there is
little prospect that 1t could pos
sibly sell sufficient tickets to de-
fray the mountainous expenses
which have accumulated"
Protest to Acheson.
Those who failed to get visas
were not among % delegates to
the conference from Russia and
other Iron Curtain" countries
who will attend.
DR.. Shapley. director Of the
Harvard College Observatory and
chairman of the committee spon-
soring the conference. sent pro-
test last night to Secretary OF
State Acheson.
DR.. Shapley asked Secretary
Acheson in a telegram for recon-
sideration Of the decisions deny
ing entry to the dozen scientists,
authors and other intellectuals.
Called Contradiction of Policy.
The protest said that barring
the delegates was in direct con-
tradiction to the (State) Depart
ment's own announced policy"
and would prove "inimical to our
good relations with the great
peoples of Western Europe and
IAtinsA america"
The eSeonference is sponsored by
the National Council OF Arts,
Sciences and Professions.
DR.. Shapley listed the visa
denials and revocations as to four
Britishers and:
Three French delegates-Abbe
Jean Boulier. religious leader;
Nine. Eugene Cotton, researchist
and president of the Pro-Com-
munist Women's International
Democratic Federation, and Paul
Eluard, Communist poet-all de-
MED visas.
An Italian delegate-Actress
Maria Michi-refused a visa.
(Three other Italians not imme-
diately identif1ed.)
A Brazilian delegate-Painter
Candido Portenari-denied visa.
Had No Official Status.
A. spokesman for the embassy
in Paris said the three French
delegates were refused visas be-
cause they have no official status.
Czechoslovakia's delegates to
the conference were to leave
Prague by plane today. They are
headed by Prof. Vladislav Stoll, Of
the Prague University school Of
political and social sciences.
There are three other members,
including Jiri Hronek, director of
the State Information Services
who has had the task of making
every information organ in the
country conform to the Marxist
line. Hronek headed a Czecho-
slovak delegation which attacked
western ideas of press freedom at
the Geneva meeting last year.
The other delegates are DR.. Jan
Boor, secretary of Slovak Cultural
Societies and former employe
of UNESCO. and DR.. Ferdinand
Hercik, professor Of biology at
Brno University.
State Department Explains