Evening star., 1951-12-15
The Strange Case of Mr.. Service

~-~~---S~"N
State Department on the ground that there is
reasonable doubt as to his loyalty can give rise
to a variety of misgivings
Some have to do with Mr. Service as an in
dividual. Others-and 1t seems to The Star that
these are more important-concern the handling
Of this case by the State Departments own
Loyalty Security Board
MIR. Service has been under fire in this mat
ter for more than six years. 1t must have been
narrowing experience, and if he is, in fact,
loyal citizen, then great personal injustice has
been done by the final conclusion of the Loyalty
Review Board, which made the finding as to
reasonable doubt.
On this point the evidence is not conclusive
There is room for honest difference of opinion
as to the meaning of the evidence In The Stars
Judgment, however, the weight of the evidence
tends to support the finding of the review
board and to rebut the conclusion OF the State
Department board that there was no reasonable
doubt as to Mr.. Services loyalty.
1t is hard to say this of a man who had
rendered distinguished service prior to his re-
turn to the United States in April, 1s45 1t is
still harder because the matter of Mr.. Services
loyalty is not cearcut but falls in that uncertain
area between an indiscretion and an act of dis
loyalty.
The whole question comes down to his as
Philip Jaffe. left-wing editor of the magazine
Amerasia who was indicted and fined here for
conspiring to illegally remove Government docu-
mentS
Mr.. Service met Mr.. Jaffe through mutual
friend and admitted that he loaned him copies
OF some OF his reports from China. This was In
violation Of State Department regulations, since
the documents had been marked secret or conf
dental. Mr. Service said he treated Mr.. Jaffe as
a reputable writer, and on that point the State
Department board said this: 'It is apparent to
the board that Mr. Service, without inquiring into
Mr.. Jaffe's background or credentials, but solely
on the basis Of Mr.. Jaffe's connection with
Amerasa, assumed to treat Mr.. Jaffe as a repu-
table writer" Therefore, concluded the State
Department board, Mr.. Service was guilty, at
most, of "a single serious indiscretion," but not
of dsloyalty
significantly different picture emerges
when one turns to the report of the Loyalty Re-
view Board.
The higher board agreed that Mr.. Services
record In China was clear. But it did not agree
that he had merely treated Mr. Jaffe as a
reputable writer concerning whom he had made
no inquiry. On the contrary said the review
board, Mr.. Service did make inquiry about Mr.
Jaffe, and at one stage of his association with
him had reason to believe that he might be
Communist.
The review boards report states that Mr..
Service, after giving the documents to Mr.. Jaffe,
became suspicious of him and checked up on him.
He was warned that Mr.. Jaie was bad medicine"
a left-winger very sympathetic to communism
and he admitted that he thought Mr.. Jaffe might
be Communist. Nevertheless said the board it
learned from the FBI apparently from re-
cordingS) that Mr.. Service had held conversa-
tions with Mr.. Jaffe in the latter's hotel ROOM
the last OF these being on May &c. 1945-after
he had reason to be suspicious of Mr.. Jaffe
These conversations, the report said indicate
that there was some conviviality and that Serv-
ice talked very freely, discussing, among other
things troop dispositions and military plans
which he said he had seen and which he said
were very secret"
1t was on this basis that the review board
concluded that there was reasonable doubt as
to Mr. Services loyalty. Yet this basis does not
appear in the report of the State Department
board
That board conceded that it had received
certain confidential information from the FBI
regarding conversations between the two men,
and in which Mr.. Service referred to certain
military plans in China as very secret But the
board brushed this aside on the premise that
Mr.. Service did not know any military secrets and
therefore could not have disclosed any. The re-
port Of the State Department board, however,
does not reveal that by the time of the last con-
versation in the Jaffe hotel room, Mr. Service had
reason to suspect that his host might be
Communist
The State Department board must have
known of this significant fact. Was 1t considered
and If SO, why did It not appear In the boards
report?