Evening star., 1952-05-03
Senators Ask
Action on Leak.
ToCotton Dealer
Demand Suspension
Of Agriculture Aide
Accused by Prober
By jones {. Roper

Three Senators Joined today IN
urging suspension of Clovis D.
Walker, head of the Agriculture
Departments cotton branch.
An Agriculture Department
spokesman, however, said he saw
no reason to discipline Mr.. Walker
without further investigation.
The Senators demanded Mr..
Walkers head after hearing four
hours of testimony about his re-
lationS with Loutfy Mansour, a
personal friend and Egypt's big, =
gest cotton dealer.
A Government investigator tes-
titled Mr.. Walker gave Mr.. Man.
sour advance information on
American plans to stockpile Egyp-
tian cotton, told Mr.. Mansour
what bids his competitors were
offering, and otherwise helped Mr..
Mansour sell the American Gov
ernment $37 million worth of cot
ton.
Charges DOcumented.
The investigator backed up his
charges with documentary evil
dence presented to the Senate Ag-
riculture Committee. Mr.. Walker
admitted in a shaky voice that
some of his actions were i'm
lproper."
Committee Chairman Ellender
and Republican Senators KEN Of
Missouri and Aiken of Vermont
agreed that Mr.. Walker should be
suspended.
Senator Ellender also an
nounced he would send the tran.
script of the testimony to the
Justice Department for possible
criminal prosecution.
Senator Aiken said the testi.
mony was amazing" 1t showed.
he said, that Mr.. Walker acted
unethically and possibly illegally.
Mr.. Walker, however, still heads
the cotton branch and is helping
buy more long-staple cotton for
stockpiling-the same job he held
during the alleged Irregularities.
Investigated Two Months.
The story of Mr.. Walkers rela-
tions with Mr.. Mansour was told
by Harold Mesibov. veteran in
vestigator for the Agriculture De-
partment. He worked on the case
for two months and submitted q
formal report to the department
on April %. So far, the report has
not reached the Office of Secretary
of Agriculture Brannan, who must
rule on any disciplinary action. A
department spokesman said fur
ther investigation is needed.
Mr.. Mesibov read the committee
a series OF cablegrams exchanged
between Mr.. Walker and Mr.. Man.
sour, and between Mr.. ManSour
and his Office in Alexandria.
Egypt.
All the cables had mysterious.
sounding phrases or words which.
Mr.. Mesibov said, were codes. He
said these included the code words
Harry" and "Eula"-the name Of
Mr.. Walkers wife-to mean Mr..
Walker.
Could Buy in Advance.
Under Mr.. Mesibov's interpre-
tatlon of these codes, the cables
indicated Mr.. Mansour had secret
military information about Amer
lean stockpiling operations. AS a
result, Mr.. Mansour could buy
cotton in advance and have it to
sell when the American Govern
ment formally announced it was
ready to buy.
Mr.. Walker said he was dumb
AOAAAASA w ACo4AI Va VIC dCCu~
racy of Mr.. Mansour's cables from
Washington to Egypt. He also
was amazed, he said, to learn
that an expression used as a code
IN the Mansour cables also was
used in one Mrs. Walker sent
to Mr.. Mansour. Mr.. Walker said
this was a coincidence.
Senator Ellender, as if annoyed
beyond endurance, suddenly turned
on Mr.. Walker and said:
THE main contact of Mr.. Man.
sour was none other than you.
I could draw no other conclu-
sion than that he got it tthe in
formation) from you"
Mr.. Walker said such a con-
clusion was mot correct" al
though he said he could UNDER
stand why Senator Ellender felt