Evening star., 1953-04-17
SoViets Start Drive
To Twist Statements,
Editor Visitor Says
Rv the Assoc,oted Press

60bbVb UsSUuVb ~
BY the Assoeiotsd Press
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio. April
Thames L. Wick, leader of
seven newspaper and radio exec
utives who recently visited Rus
sia. said today the Soviets have
started campaign to distort
completely statements made by
the group.
''Never in journalistic history
have so many lies been told in
so few words except by other
Soviet propagandiSts equally
adept he said in a statement.
Mr.. Wick is board chairman
of the Mahoning Valley Newspa-
pers, Inc. which owns the Niles
Daily Times.
"This campaign of distortion
of our statements is merely an
other evidence that the Soviet
interest is exclusively in propa-
ganda and not in the TRUTH" he
said.
"EyeS Opened" Says Soviet.
Mr.. Wick issued his statement
after the Moscow trade union
newspaper Trud said the Ameri-
can visitors became convinced Of
q Soviet will to "achieve peace
full agreement and peaceful solu-
tion Of all conflicts"
The story quoted the journal
lists as having glowingly favor
able impressions of Moscow and
the Soviet Union and as having
their eyes opened to the western
Campaign of lies against the
Soviet Union"
In his statement, Mr.. Wick de-
clared, I'VE said the people of
the Soviet Union, like the people
of all other countries, clearly
want peace, but we also emphat-
ically added that the real ques-
ton is, What do the men in the
Kremlin want?'
"I have said on many occa-
sions that they want the fruits
of conquests without war involv-
ing the Soviet Union itself, but
certainly at considerable risk Of
such war"
Scant Attention While There.
While the visiting editors were
in Moscow, main organs of the
Soviet press paid them scant
notice. The April II issue of
Trud, which reached New York
yesterday. credits the East Ger
man Adm agency for a story of
a news conference given in West
Berlin by the editors April 9 on
their arrival from Moscow.
It gives this account, putting
MoscoW's own Interpretation on
remarks made at the news con-
ference:
THE leader of the group Of
American journalists. James
Wick (of North Carolina, Ohio
and Louisiana newspapers, and
the remainder of the correspond
entS unanimously underScored
that all Soviet citizens with
whom they came in contact were
filled with a deep love of peace.
He underscored that the support
by the Soviet government of the
proposal of Chou En-lai and
Kim II Sung on the ending of
the war in Korea was a demon
stration of the will of the Soviet
Union to achieve peaceful agree
ment and peaceful solution to all
conflicts.
Simon Replies to Quotation.
Another American journalist,
Eugene Simon (Tarentum, Pa,
:. said: 1T was necessary for
myself to be there in order to be
satisfied how much the actuality
is unlike the official dispatches
of the Department of State of
the U. S. A., the American diplo-
matte mission and even the for
eign correspondents in Mos
cow"
At his home in Tarentum, Mr..
Simon, who is president of the
Valley Daily News, said he was
mot too surprised" at the COM
ment in the Russian newspaper.
He added:
while we were in Moscow,
we were told by the American
Embassy. officials not to be too
concerned about the possibility
of being used by the Russians
for propaganda purposes, be-
cause if that was going to be
the Soviet intention it would
make little difference what our
group said or did"
Mr.. Simon said the statement
attributed to him concerning the
State Department and its report
of conditions in Moscow lis moth