Evening star., 1952-04-25
By Joseph A. Fox

By Joseph A. Fox
President Truman's ultimatum
to-Stalin statement which subse
quently was corrected" by th'
White House, was a by-product o.
the furore stirred week ago
That was when some members Of
the American Society of News.
paper Editors thought Mr.. Tru.
man was claiming at press con.
ference the same inherent power.
to seize press and radio in ar
emergency that he had invoked ir
taking over the steel industry.
The confusion engendered by
the White House follow-up on the
Stain discussion at yesterday
news conference, recalled. notably
a similar instance about l8 months
ago. At that time, Mr.. Truman
caused an international uproar by
telling reporters that use of the
atom bomb in Korea was under
consideration. The White House
later sought to ease some of the
impact of that assertion by ex-
planning that the A-bomb had
been given thought in the Korean
!. hostitlities 'just as there is con-
sideration Of the use of all mill
tary weapons where our forces are
in combat"
Alarmed at the implications.
the then British Prime Minister
Clement Attlee came here to talk
that one over.
Another famous White House
mixup came in the Fall of 1916.
when the President said he had
approved a foreign policy speech
] by Secretary of Commerce Henry
Wallace which ran counter to
administration policy. Later it
was said the President had not
read all of it-and Mr.. Wallace
was fired.
At the outset of yesterdays con-
ference, Mr.. Truman read a brief
statement explaining that he had
a word or two for the reporters
before the questioning started.
There has been a lot of hooey,
he said, about seizure of press
and radio. Continuing, he said
that. as he had told the news
session last week, the President
Of the United States has very
great inherent powers to meet
great national emergencies.
Depends on Emergency.
He added, however. that until
those emergencies arise, the Pres
ident cannot say specifically what
he would do or would not do. Mr..
Truman emphasized that the
thought of seizing press and radio
never had occurred to him. He
would have difficulty, he said.
imagining the Government taking
over and running those industries.
Mr.. Truman had been asked in
the colloquy with the editors If
inherent powers could be used to
take over press and radio. Some
though his reply indicated his
conviction that such authority
existed.
Turning from the press-radio1
angle yesterday, Mr.. Truman said
he wanted to talk a little bit about
steel.
When his advisory Board on
Mobilization was at the White
House earlier this week, he said,
he told them the necessity for the
steel seizure was the fact that we
are in one of the greatest emer-
gencieS the country ever has faced.
Then, he turned to other in
stances in which he had taken
strong measures.
Points to Iran and Trieste.
In 1945, he said, he had to send
an ultimatrm to the Soviet Union
to get out Of Iran by a certain
date. They got out, he added
grimly. because we were in a posi-
ton then to meet a situation Of
that kind. AS it developed, this
was a reference to this Nations
military might at the time.
A little later, the President con-
tinued. the YugoSlaV Government
decided to take Trieste. He sent
for Gen. Eisenhower and Gen.
Marshall and the Navy, Mr.. Tru-
man continued, and ordered the
Mediterranean feet into the Adri-
attic Sea. He told Gen. Eisenhower
to dispatch three divisions to
Northern Italy.
There was no march on Trieste,
he concluded.
While Mr.. Truman at first dated
his communication to Marshal
Stain as 1945, he conceded later
it might have been in 1916.
Subsequent Statement.
The subsequent White House
statement said that this Govern
ment had sent a note to Russia
through regular channels on March
6, 1916, calling for the withdrawal
of Soviet forces which had been
held in Iran since the end Of the
war, in violation of an agreement.
The Russians withdrew in May,
1916.
The White House statement said
that there had been no ultimatum.
and no presidentially- fixed dead
line.
This post-conference statement
also said that Marshall Tito's
Yugoslavs had been ordered out of
Trieste by the United States and
Great Britain after a 40-day oc-