Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-04-08

the State Department, in policy
division, can do tremendous
damage while one Communist
spy over in Moscow can do us
very little damage. =
@. You mentioned the State
Department. When you get
around to the armed services,
however. you seemed thus far
to have investigated only the
Army in any major way. Is
there any reason for that? 5
A. If we found any Commu-
nistS in the Air Corps or in any
other branch. we Of course would
have to. expose them. We have
only found them in the Army SO
far. think we should empha-
size the fact. that the vast ma
jority of the officers in the Army
who have contacted me in re-
gard to this Investigations
great many have. especially in
the last week-are heartily 100
per cent in favor of exposing any
Communists that are found.
Our difficulty comes princi-
pally from the civilian Penta-
gon politicians. If I may refer
to them as that.
@. Are they in all services,
"the civilian Pentagon politi-
clans" or are they only in one,
the Army?
A. Our principal difficulty has
come from the legal depart
ments so far.
@. OF the Pentagon, repre-
senting all the services or the
legal department of the Army?
A. Both the Defense establish
ment and the Army. A good ex-
ample Of how officers feel.
think. was demonstrated by Gen.
(Kirke) Lawton, who is the COM
manding officer of Fort Mon
mouth, which we investigated
He was before the committee.
can't quote verbatim as I don t
have the testimony here.
Roy. see If this isn't subStan-
TALLY what he said.
I said. General, why did you
wait until we started our inves-
tigation before you started to
suspend these people with Com
munist records?"
Claims Lack of Support.
He said. "Your question is the
answer, Senator" He said, II
wouldn't get the backing until
you started your investigation. %
Then he went on to tell us of
all the cases that they had sus-
pended. some with very bad rec
ords. They would get by the 1st
Army's loyalty board. Then, Of
course, if the LIST Army's loyalty
board agreed with the command
ing officer at Fort Monmouth,
the appeal would be to the board
in the Pentagon. They call it the
screening board, or something
like that. Almost without excep-
ton they would reverse the find
ings and send the man back and
order him reinstated and back
pay would be paid to him. That
board was disbanded, incidental
ly, during our Fort Monmouth
hearings. A different board was
set up with different personnel.
@. There has been some ques-
ton in the minds Of some peo-
pie. which they have expressed
publicly, that your objective in
this committee investigation is
to expose information already in
your possession rather than try
ing to uncover new information
about people. What do you say
to that sort of theory in con-
nection with your investigations?
A. I am not sure that I follow
you on that.
@. Well. there are contentious
that you have this information,
that you have obtained it some
how, and that you hold your
hearings not to obtain new in
formation but merely to expose
what information you already
have, that you are not gathering
new information by your public
hearings.
A. The principal purpose of
a public hearing Is to let the
public know what is going on.
AS far as getting information
ourselves is concerned, we could
get all that information behind
closed doors.
Two Theories.
There are two theories, OF
course. There is one theory, fol-
lowed by some, that it is a favor
to the American people to let
them know what their elected
officials are doing. I don't fol-
low that theory. I think they
have an absolute right to know
what is going on.
I think we have an absolute
duty to bring all the facts in
regard to any misconduct on the
part of public officials to the at
tention of the public. # there
are Communists handling de-
Tense work, the American people
should know it. That is the way
you get them.
@. Do you ever get any tips
from the FBI? You have said
that you do not have access to
their files?
A. I neither ask the FBI for
information nor do they supply
me with information. The only
time I ask for information is
through the Attorney General.
BY official letter we occasionally
ask for name checks. We occa-
sionally ask that an individual
we can't ind be located. That
is always done through the At
torney General; and II he au-