Evening star., 1952-12-03
They Should Be Fired


Secretary General Trygve Lie of the United
Nations has received eminently sound advice
regarding the problem of what to do with Ameri-
can citizens on his staff who are suspected Of
disloyalty to their country. He has been urged,
in effect to dismiss all such individuals If he
finds after proper inquiry, that the suspicion
is based on reasonable grounds.
This counsel is especially impressive because
it has been offered in unanimous report
presented by the special three-man legal panel
set up last month by Mr.. Lie to provide him
with guidance on the subject. Though tailored
for general application, the reports recommen-
dations have to do particularly with those United
States nationals (more than IS of them who
have refused to answer questions put to them
by Senator McCarran's Subcommittee on Internal
Security and by New York Federal grand jury
which has just issued scathing and startling
presentment concerning them. They have been
asked to say whether they are or have been
Communists and whether they are or have been
engaged in subversion or espionage against the
country. All have chosen to remain completely
num- They have stood firm on their constitu-
tional right not to give testimony that might
tend to be elf-incriminating
With these basic facts before it, Mr.. Lies
panel Of distinguished lawyers-one an American,
another a Briton and the third Belgian-has
laid down the following fundamental rule: In ex-
ercsing his responsibilities for the selection and
retention of the secretariats employees "the
Secretary General should regard 1t as Of the
first Importance to refrain from engaging or
to remove from the staff any person whom he
has reasonable grounds for believing to be en-
gaged, or to have been engaged, or to be likely
to be engaged in any activities regarded as
disloyal by the host country" AS for reasonable
grounds" the panels findings emphasize Cd
that U. N employment should be absolutely
denied to an individual convicted of a crime
involving even IAN ingredient of disloyalty" to
his nation, and (2) that United States citizens
working for the United Nations should be dis
missed from such work II they refuse to testify
as to whether or not they are or have been
Communists or subversives or spies against their
own land
In other words, in the panels firm opinion,
there obviously are reasonable grounds" for
doubling the loyalty of such people, and they
are therefore altogether unsuitable" for en-
ployment by the United Nations. They are
entirely within their rights, of course, in invok-
ing our constitutional protection against self
incrimination, but in so doing they are exer-
csing the kind of privilege that creates so strong
a suspicion of guilt that the fact OF its exercise
must be withheld from jury in criminal
trial" Although they may not actually be guilty,
they must nevertheless pay 'price-as the panel
has said-for declining either to affirm or deny
that they are or have been engaged in espionage
or subversive activities Silence Of that sort is
bound to lead their fellow citizens to distrust
them. More than that, it is enough in itself to
make it clear duty" of the Secretary General
to discharge them from the u N.
All this adds up to common sense advice,
and Mr.. Lie if he follows it, will be doing much
to correct situation in which many OF our
people-rghtly disturbed by suggestions that the
United Nations has been harboring subversive
Americans-have been souring on the world Or
ganization The Secretary General should rid
his staff of any and all United States nationals
who refuse to say whether they are loyal or not
And the same holds true, as emphasized in the
grand jurys presentment, for those who run other
u N. enterprises like the World Monetary Fund,
which is in the news at the moment because
of its extraordinarily tight-lipped Frank Coe.
Quite obviously the service of such individuals is
anything but indispensable They can readily be
replaced by citizens who are wholly above
suspicion.