Evening star., 1953-09-15

Stain.
Your case looks much better
since we made this contact"
Late in February, Kratochvil
telephoned me to meet him at a
coffee shop for "Some good news
about your accreditation." There
he told me it would be restored
soon. And it was.
thought I had won-Won in
a fight to convince the secret
police that I was a legitimate
foreign correspondent, and not
a spy. But / forgot something
that Kratochvil had told me the
day we first met.
You're all right" he had said,
unless they want you for a
propaganda trial"
Policeman Shot to Death.
Then one night in February
the Prague radio broadcast that
a policeman had been shot to
death near Charles Square in
downtown Prague. The killers
had escaped The public was
asked to tell the police anything
known about them.
In that killing, I saw only one
item in the day-by-day grist of
news that passed through the
Office. Actually, it was an event
that was to WELD an enormous
influence on my own life.
About a month later, Mrs.
Hama Svobodova came into the
Office. She was the wife of
Thomas Svoboda, one of my
tranSlatorS, and the mother of
his baby daughter. She was look
ing for her husband, and she
was weeping.
He was off that day, and no.
body in the Office had seen him.
His wife, who had a clerical job
and had worked herself during
the day, would say only that he
had left the apartment where
they lived with her parents and
had not come back.
Svoboda never came back to
work, either. I reported his dis
appearance to the Ministry of
Information, which had approved
his employment by the A. P. and
to the police.
But neither was any help in
tracing him. And as I learned
more about what had happened
that day, his wife had come
looking for him, I was pretty sure
knew why.
While Svoboda was in the
apartment with his mother-in-
law. a strange man had come
asking for him. Svoboda had
talked with the man briefly in
an undertone, and then both had
left.
AS they walked down the street
below, another man had fallen in
behind them, and the three had
vanished around a corner. That
night, plainclothesmen had
searched the apartment.
Refugee Was Involved.
It seemed safe to guess that
Svoboda was in the hands of the
secret police. But, by virtue of
the very nature of the secret
police. it did not seem safe to
say So-not out loud. anyway.
A few days after that, Paul
Woydinek of my Czech staff said
he had learned the trouble was
that that boy who's out of the
country" had been connected
with "some people that had
something to do with the mur-
der of that policeman"
I had never met that boy
who's out of the country" But
I had heard lot about him.
He was chum of Svoboda S
from college days, a young Czech
refugee who lived in Paris and
was in and out of CzechosleVakia
from time to time.
1t was fairly clear to me that
he crossed the border illegally
But I was unaware of whatever
else he might be doing. In fact,
I did not even know his name.
I had heard of him first from
Nathan Polowetzky, my prede-
ceSsor in charge of the Prague
A. P. bureau.
In talking with me about his
work in Prague, he spoke of "a
little guy"-he did not mention
any name-who had given him
news. a man who came from
Paris but seemed well informed
on doings in CzechoSlovakia.
After got to Prague l heard
from Czech employees that this
man had given Polowetzky a
story the Ministry of Informa-
ton had cited as an example of
"unobjective reporting"-a fac
tual story on a coal mine strike
in the Bohemian town of Kladno.
Woydinek did not show up for
work April 2. I went to his room
with an interpreter and found it
sealed with paper tape. A neigh
Dor told us what had happened:
About $50, as Woydinek was
getting ready to 60 to the Office
six plainclothesmen had walked