Evening star., 1949-07-09
Yeor-OId Hiss Puzzle Still Unsettled

HISS perjury Crlal leaves uIlSeItlco
a puzzle that has baff1ed the
American public for nearly a year.
1t all started on August 3, 1948.
when a witness showed up with
out benefit of ballyhoo before the
House Committee on Un-American
Activities and listed Mr.. Hiss
among six key figures in pre-
war Communist apparatus. The
man was Whitaker Chambers.
Two days later, at his own re-
qest, Mr.. Hiss faced the commit
tee. He said he was not and
never had been a member OF the
Communist Party and that so
far as I am aware. I have never
laid eyes on him (Mr. Chambers)
and I should like to have the
opportunity to do so"
He got his chance in a New
York hotel room August II, but
by that time he had told the
committee the man they knew as
Chambers might have been dead.
beat free lance writer he had
known as George Crosley" back
In the mid thirties. At the hotel
meeting, he looked at Mr.. Cham
bers' teeth. said they had changed
but Mr.. Chambers and "Crosley'
were the same man.
Faced Each Other.
The two men faced each other
publicly August Is in an all-day
session that solved nothing, ex-
cept that they recognized each
other. A few days later the
committee issued statement call
ing Mr.. Hiss testimony "evasive,"
not completely fortnight and a
strain on their credulity.
Mr.. Hiss challenged Mr.. Cham
bers to make his charges away
from the immunity of the COM
mittee. Mr.. Chambers promptly
obliged in a radio broadcast. A
month later, Mr.. Hiss filed a
$75, 900 damage suit for defama-
ton of character.
Trial of the suit in Baltimore
has been postponed pending the
outcome of the perjury case, but it
was this suit that precipitated the
indictment. During questioning
by Mr.. Hiss attorney before trial
of the suit, MIR. Chambers pro-
duced a batch of photostats OF
Government documents which he
said Mr.. Hiss had given him.
Escorted by Un-American Ac-
tivities Committee investigators.
Mr.. Chambers went to his West
minister (Md.) farm and turned
up some rolls of microfllm in
pumpkin. These turned out to
be more Government documents.
Indicted in December.
On the last day of its 18-month
term last December Is, a special
grand jury in New York indicted
Mr.. Hiss on two perjury counts.
He was charged with lying when
he told the grand jury he did not
give any documents to Mr.. Cham
bers and when he said he did not
see his accuser after January l.
1887. The statute of limitations
barred espionage charges against
either man.
The perjury trial Of the one
time State Department official
opened on May 81. BY that
time, Mr.. Hiss had given up
his post as president of the
Carnegie Endowment for Inter-
national Peace and Mr.. Chambers
bad quit his lucrative job as a
senior editor of Time Magazine.
At the outset, Prosecutor Muir
ply told the jury the Government
was banking almost entirely on
the testimony of Mr.. Chambers.
But before the trial ended, more
than 40 other witnesses had ap-
peared for the prosecution.
For the defense Mr.. Stryker set
out to destroy the credibility of
the Governments star witness and
to portray Mr.. Hiss as a man
whose distinguished service to the
Government barred any posi-
bility of disloyalty.
Chambers Testimony.
On the witness stand, Mr..
Chambers started out by testi-
flying the first time he met Mr..
Hiss in June or July, 1884. the
conversation had to do with set
ting up new Communist appa-
,ratus in the Government.
He asserted that Mr.. Hiss, at
the request of Soviet spy agent,
Col. Boris Bykov, gave him State
Department papers for photo
graphing and transmission to the
Soviets.
He testified he borrowed $500
from Mr.. Hiss in 1887 to buy an
automobile. He also described an
automobile trip to Peterborough,
N. H., with the Kisses in August,
1887, and said he last saw Mr..
Hiss at Christmas, 1888.
In a withering croSs-eXamina-
ton Mr.. Stryker pried into cpl
sodes of Mr.. Chambers past per-
sonal life. Mr.. Chambers was
made to read part of a blasphe-
nous play written in his youth
and to describe his relations with
various women whom Mr.. Stryker
called prostitutes. Mr.. Chambers
denied the defense allegation he
lived in a New Orleans dive with
a prostitute named One Eyed
Annie.
Admitted Perjury.
But in voice that never lost
its detached calmness, Mr.. Cham
bers admitted he committed per-
jury himself in failing to tell the
grand jury last fall that Mr.. Hiss
engaged in espionage activities.
He further admitted that he did
not tell the full truth about Mr..
Hiss to the Un-American 'Activi-
ties Committee or the FBI.