Evening star., 1953-09-17

questioning even the widest de-
partures from fact.
had come to the conclusion
that many priSOnerS-I dare say
most prisoners-come to in that
place. You are in the hands
of the secret police. You will
never get away from them until
you give them what they want.
Once my will had faded away
in that fashion. the referent had
plain sailing. He rewrote all my
protocols from the beginning,
introducing changes.
Finally 1 was ushered into an
Office of the prison where a
f1dgety woman interpreter sat
with a baldheaded, croSseyed
man in shirtsleeves and a bow
tie.
Il am Judge Novak, the chair
man of the senate of the state
court in Prague" he told me.
Your behavior here has been
good. If you behave well before
the court also. you don't need
to worry
How often have I heard that
line!
The judge read what he said
was the indictment. Nowhere
was there any mention of the
paragraphs of the law under
which I was indicted. I stood
accused formally of espionage
for the United States Govern
ment. Words that the referent
had put into my mouth. by put
ting them into my protocol. were
used to show that I had sent
news stories on the arrests of
former Foreign Minister Vlado
Clements and Otto Sling, de-
posed Brno Communist leader,
with intent to advise "the Amer
ican espionage net" which of
it's strongpoints in Czechoslo-
vakia had fallen, so that it could
regroup.
Convicted Before Trial.
Judge Novak said a lawyer had
been assigned me.
THE function Of a lawyer" ,"
he said, lis not to help the de-
fendent escape sentence. 1t is
to help him get a lighter SEN
tence."
(This seemed to mean that
stood convicted even before
went to trial. And it was the
presiding judge who was giving
me the neWsD
-Four days later, I met a rab-
bity. poker faced man whom his
interpreter introduced as your
lawyer, DR.. Bartos."
DR.. Bartos told me, II think
you have a good chance to go
home this year." He advised me
to testify according to the pro-
tocol and said his defense would
be that I did not go into es-
pionage deliberately but lust
fell into it,"
That week the referent had
me in his Office almost daily,
and we rehearsed the protocol: d:
He asked the questions and 1
gave the answers more or less as
written. At length, I got it
down pat.
On Monday, July 2, 1851, I
stood up in court in Prague,
Czechoslovakia, and said had
spied for the United States EN-
baSSy.
I was not a spy. I was an
Associated Press foreign cor
respondent, and the three men
accused with me were my Czech
employees.
And I was not testifying as 1
should have testified in a court
in my own country-out of my
heart. aiming to tell "the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but
the truth"
was testifying as the Commu-
mist secret police wanted me to
testify. I was following, in sub
stance. and sometimes void for
word, a script they had written
for me and rehearsed me in.
Guarded by Armed Men.
That morning. we four went
on trial before the senate of the
state court at Pankrac Prison,
in Southeast Prague.
We were brought there after
breakfast from the prison where
we had been interrogated. II
did not find out till after the trial
where that prison was.)
We made the trip in a green
van, each locked in blind COM
partment with guards crowding
the aisle. Other guards with
submachine guns watched in a
courtyard as we were led into
Pankrac Prison.
We passed through a subter-
ranearf corridor and upstairs to
a row of separate cells. l waited
in my cell, smoking nervously
and guarded by tall uniformed
policeman with a big pistol.
Then we crossed a hall and
entered the high-ceilinged court
room by a side door. We must
have looked quite decent. for