Evening star., 1951-02-11

Dispute OF mcldnny
And Pearson Referred
To McGrath by Army
Charges and counter charges by
Senator Mccarthy. Republican. Of
Wisconsin and Drew Pearson that
each improperly disclosed secret
defense information, have gone to
the Justice Department, Secretary
of the Army Pace disclosed yester-
day.
This latest turn in the Nc
Carthy y-Pearson feud came to- light
in letters written by the two men
to Secretary Pace and in replies
he sent each of them.
The Wisconsin Senator, in a
letter to Mr.. Pace, had accused
Mr.. Pearson of having used con-
fidential military dispatches in
a column December 80. The COL
umn contended that Chinese Com
munist strength in Korea before
last November was much less than
Gen. Macarthur publicly reported.
Says Mccarthy Revealed Data.
Mr.. Pearson, in a letter to the
Army Secretary. protested that
Senator Mccarthy, in a January
% Senate speech commenting on
the Pearson column, revealed the
date and secret number of the
dispatch, contrary to regulations.
Secretary Pace, in letter
dated February 7 and given out
by Senator Mccarthy yesterday,
told the Senator that the Army's
preliminary investigation of his
charges of public disclosure of
classified information "has been
completed with negative results"
However" he added, II have
referred the entire case to the
Secretary of Defense who in turn
has referred 1t to the Department
of Justice for further investiga-
ton"
Expresses Faith in FBI.
Senator Mccarthy also made
public a letter he wrote to Chair
man Russell of the Senate Armed
Services Committee. expressing
confidence that the FBI. IF given
a free hand" will find the thief"
responsible for obtaining Defense
Department secrets.
However" he added, "you may
want to check to make certain
that Peyton Ford assistant At
torney GeneraD actually author
ICES the investigation. If he does
not do so feel sure that if the
matter is brought to Attorney
General McGrath's personal at
tention he will give the FBI a
free hand"
Secretary Pace, in letter to
Mr.. Pearson also dated February
Z, told of having referred the
whole matter to the Justice De-
partment. He also answered seven
questions Mr.. Pearson had sub
mitted February 2.
Disclaims Jurisdiction.
To question whether the Army
gave special permission to Senator
Mccarthy. who is a Marine Corps
Reserve officer. to disclose the date
and number of secret report, Mr..
Pace replied that the Army had
given nobody such authorize
/ ton"
The Department of the Army"
he added. has no administrative
jurisdiction over reserve officers in
the Marine Corps"
That was in answer to Mr.. Pear
sons query whether the depart
nent planned to take action
against the Senator.
Besides releasing his part in the
exchange of correspondence, Mr..
Pearson yesterday declared:
Mccarthy first accuses me of
being liar. Then he accuses me
OF being too accurate. 1t is i'm
portant to note that the material
published and which he COM
plains of all pertains to military
mistakes which cost lives and that
the material was published after
the mistakes occurred"
Charges Willful Breach,
He asserted that Senator Nc
Carthy committed "a breach of
security of which ! was not guilty
and which he as a reserve officer
made with deliberate and wilful
intent"
Senator Mccarthy summed up
his position with this comment in
the letter to Senator Russell:
"The thing which gives me the
greatest concern is not Pearson's
publication of excerpts from a few
secret military documents. Many
of the Intelligence officers, with
whom I have discussed the case,
and I are deeply concerned over
the more dangerous fact that this
thief who is concededly stealing
some secret documents is un-
doubtedly stealing and passing on
to Pearson and others hundreds
or thousands of other military
secrets"
AS for Mr.. Pearson's earlier de-
fense of the information used in
his column last December, Secre-
tary Pace said in his letter to the
columnist:
Before answering your ques-
tions may point out that I
did not say your publication OF
the estimates of Chinese military
strength did not violate security.
Instead said that Sy.ch y,r,hii