Evening star., 1953-09-13

dence. The evidence must show
to the satisfaction Of the court
that the accused broke the law.
In this, the secret police have
two advantages: The law is flex-
ible, and their power over their
prisoners makes 1t relatively
easy for them to gather evi-
dence, and even to manufac-
ture it.
They can stretch the law from
one side and the evidence from
the other until the two overlap
and can be bound together,
much as a sailor might pull to-
gether and splice two sections
Of a severed rope. And the court
will not look too closely at the
splice.
They were suspicious of me
from the day I entered Czecho-
slovakia.
/
An innocent though incautious
act of mine two months later
strengthened their suspicious.
That act prompted the authori-
ties to stop my accreditation at
the end of September. But they
did not tell me the reason. and
could not guess.
I asked and got permission to
stay and work as usual without
accreditation. A few weeks later.
I was invited to a confidential
meeting with q secret police
official.
On that occasion, a police
agent posing as a ministry en-
ploye struck up an acquaintance
with me. Several times after
that he invited me to dinner.
went along, to try to figure
out this mystery man. He fished
for information on. the United
States Embassy. He suggested
that I use Embassy communica-
tions channels to send news out
of the country. And he finally
tried to get me to work for him
:, If his object was to provoke
me to a clear violation Of the law
and catch me redhanded in it
he got nowhere. If his aim was
to turn me into a police spy, he
failed in that, too.
But he did give me some "un-
Official" information, and this
was used against me at my trial
He also did something for me
that looked at the time like q
favor. In February, 1851. he
helped get my accreditation re-
stored.
That same month, a secret
police agent was shot and killed
in Prague. Soon after, the police
started arresting acquaintance
Of mine. They were also &C.
quaintances of a man I haC
heard of but never met-anothel
mystery man.
Three Employees Arrested.
He was a Czech refugee who
for reasons unknown to me
passed back and forth across the
border between Czechoslovakia
and Western Germany. And II
was another acquaintance of this
man, outside my own circle OF
friends, who was arrested and
accused of killing the policeman
Three of my employees knew
this refugee. These employees
were arrested one by one-first
Svoboda. then Woydinek. then
MuntZ.
On April % the police ar
rested me. too, searched my office
and seized notes, news stories
messages and other material
Later. others acquainted with
the four of us were picked up
And everybody was put through
stiff interrogation.
It Is through such interroga-
tions that prisoners are induced
to make the fantastic confessions
that are the hallmark of prop
aganda trial.
They confess. most Of them,
not because confessions are
beaten out of them. should
hesitate to say no suspect ever
was beaten in Czechoslovakia.
But never in my two years in
prison was I beaten, and never
did I meet another prisoner who
would say he had been beaten
or who showed any signs of it.
AS for the injections" re-
putedly used in Communist
countries, I was given no injec-
tions Of anything besides what
was described-correctly, I be-
lieve-as a sugar and vitamin
solution for my health. I heard
of no other prisoner who was
drugged.
Prisoners make fantastic con-
fessions primarily, I think, be-
cause they feel that that is their
only chance to save something
out of the wreckage.
System Almost FOOlprOOf.
They do so because they feel
that that is what the police want
them to do, and that unless they