Evening star., 1953-09-17

/ to let me write her. He put me
off.
One night Vida suggested I
| try again. The referent asked me
what I wanted to say in the let
ter. I told him, and he left the
room.
Pretty soon he came back with
something written in Czech. The
interpreter put it in English and
handed it to me. The referent
had written my letter for me.
/ It was fantastic. 1t made me
say that I had been Caught in
espionage" that I had told all
and that I wanted to live "a
clean, new life"
| Keep your hopes high" 1t
wound up, "and trust in the JUS
tice of the Czechoslovak peo-
pie, who are working for peace"
/ Easier After First.
/ I said. when my wife reads
this. she'll think I've gone
crazy"
/ But Vida reminded me, Your
wife is clever she'll under
stand"
! The referent insisted the letter
would go out that way or not at
all. So I copied it in my own
handwriting, and he sent it.
That was the first statement
I signed that was quite out of
character and patiently phony.
Once they had got me to sign
that one. it was easier for them.
That talk about high hopes
and a clean, new life was en-
couraging. So was Vida. He
said, Don't worry about a trial"
A few nights later, about a
month after my arrest, a police
staff captain sat down at the
desk and I sat down in my chair
facing him. He smiled and be-
gan to talk, smoothly and cour-
teouSly.
He asked me what connection
the A. P. had with the United
States Government. I said it had
none. "Oh, Oatis," he said, du-
biously.
! My referent, standing by, must
have felt he had muffed the case,
since his commander, the cap
tain had had to intervene. He
now eploded.
He twitched, frowned and
screeched at me something inter-
preted as You dirty BASTARD"
He accused me of backtracking
on testimony.
Asked About Army Pass.
In due course the captain asked
me about card found in my eff
fects. It was an off duty pass
from the Military Intelligence
Service japanese language school
at Fort Smelling, MINI.
had been there briefly in 1914
enroute to a years study at a
similar school at the University
of Michigan. At Michigan, I
continued training in japanese
that I had begun in the Army
Specialized Training Program at
the University of Minnesota.
Though Military Intelligence
ran the Michigan school, 1 was
never in the branch. At the
school I was corporal on the de-
tached enlisted mems list. And
never got into it, for after I
finished the course I was dis
charged from the Army.
But the commander told me to
write about the school and the
men had known there and put
me back in my cell with a type
writer and cigarettes. I wrote
several pages, sent them to him
and went to bed.
The next nights questioning
brought out that Col. Atwood had
been in the language school while
l was there but that we had not
met there.
Some "a hours later, the COM
mander laid a long document
before me and said, Sign this
and you don't need to worry"
The first part was a garbled
| version of my account about the
language school. The second
part was something new. It in
troduced Col. Atwood as an old
fellow student. It had me saying
that he was a spy and that I gave
him information because II knew
he was interested in espionage
reports of all kinds"
| Signs Another Statement.
1t was so weird l smiled. I
thought, This looks as if it
were all aimed at Atwood. If I
sign it, they'll expel him-but
maybe they'll expel me, too,
without a trial"
T. I signed that statement-and
hooked myself properly. Be-
fcause. as I Ssaw with chagrin
later, they were not trying to get
Col. Atwood out of the country;
they were trying to keep me
in prison.
Resistance Lowered.
BY now, I had signed so many
papers that it had become a
habit. I went on signing them
aainnoSf aY1fnY,a finoIIv meIdona