Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 December 1949 — Page 20

WALTER, LECKRONY HENRY W. MANZ

“PAGE 20 ‘Wednesday, Dec. 14, 1949

EECA

nd Sania and 100 Woy SA

Telephone Rl ley 8551 Glow 14ghs and the People Will Ping Phew Du way

The Angus Ward Story _

Chinese Communist captors, but it's equally gratifying that he is getting a chance to tell his story before it can be filtered through the State Department. For there are a lot of people, entrenched among the department's policy-makers, who insist that we can get along with Red China and should recognize that irresponsible regime just as soon “as the dust settles.” So we're glad Mr. Ward is kicking up the dust some more before he comes home to be officially silenced or perhaps disavowed. The outspoken consul general has not yet told his story in full, but what he has said already about the Chinese Communists is harsh and damning.

> . » . . Ld

‘MR. WARD summed up his and his _stafl’s year-long detention in Mukden as “hellish.” He spoke bitterly of his 24 days’ solitary confinement on bread and water in an underheated and sometimes unheated jail. His whitened hair and beard and his loss of 25 pounds’ weight were grim evidence of his ordeal. Asked how it felt to be back on board a ship under the American flag, he said: “Just imagine how you'll feel the day after old St. Peter lets you in.” In Mukden, he said, neither he nor any of his staff had been able to move except under armed guard since Nov. 20, 1048, the day the Communists occupied the city. And, when

party $7000 in U. 8. money for the 400-mile train ride from Mukden to Tientsin. ~ » . ~ . " “THIS, ‘mind you, was the treatment accorded official of the United States by a Moscow-dominated gang of cutthroats who have the gall to ask this country to ctfuisn them as the Togat and responsible government of

‘the relief ship as Angus Ward started a bit of his story to American reporters. think the Ward case was unique, there is the

“instance of two ECA officials, also representatives t, who were. “released yesterday by the

Re tag to “heavy questioning” during 80 days of captivity and that, at ane time, they became so thin a doctor ordered their food ration increased.

& , =» y 5 =»

nists in another part of China since October, 1948. And the z of other American consular personnel in the Redcontrolled cities who are kept under virtual house arrest while representing the government, wh 3 HU and distasteful though the Angus Ward ° ease has been, it may yet prove beneficial in dramatizing a fact which the State Department's ostrich-headed policyrefuse to concede: That the Communist regime in China is not fit to take its place among civilized nations.

Bigger Job Ahead

AYES ENCOURAGING number of Hoover Commission profor reorganization of the federal government were Po by the 1940 session of Congress. "© But, if the possible gains in governmental efficiency and’ economy are to be realized. the 1950 session must do a great deal more. So the Citizens Committee on the Hoover reports has brought in Washington this week leaders in many flelds of 7, from all parts of the country, for a nonpartisan, effort to stimulate continued, accel ‘erated action. And last night Herbert Hoover gave the conference a list of the reforms he considers most urgent: v 9 a s =» \ ONE: Reorganize civil service to encourage ability, eliminate red tape and give the public better service from its government employees. . TWO: Reorganize budgeting and accounting, on a performance basis, so that the cost of each federal function can be known accurately and compared from year to year. THREE: Reorganize the post office as a modern business, free from politics and from the handicap of “a form of organization that is a relic of Benjamin Franklin plus 160 years of oft-conflicting laws.” FOUR: Unify government hospitals, public health and medical research to eliminate waste and better serve our armed forces, veterans and seamen. ~ " » . . . FIVE: Unify water conservation services, now scatfered among many agencies, to save money and save water. SIX: Unify federal land management; stop wasteful competition between the Interior and Agricultural Departments in administration of government-owned grazing and forest lands. i SEVEN: Unify government services to transportation, under co-ordinated policies aimed at developing a balanced national transport system on land and sea and in the air. ; EIGHT: Relieve the President by reducing the number - of agencies—now about 65—which report directly to him and make impossible demands on his time and energy, and by straightening out the vast confusion of authorities between bureaus and between the executive and the Congress. » » . ~ J » * TO EACH of those reports there will be opposition by in and out of government, who have acquired vested sts in things as they are. And many-other Hoover Co ‘recommendations seem hardly less urgent. But, ~ sertainly, speedy action on the eight Mr. Hoover listed is 5 onal, This is by no means the whole program, , but, as : be said, “it will do to go on with,”

Token, We Hope

to return to us, around Christmas at of three ice-breakers we lent to her a

‘operations, Adm, Forrest P

: Sunday he 8 on n » ay ar aa a hd} [ ead hn —— fund ay ak wn

DE ry am wh he

he finally was freed, the Communists charged him and his -

ie NAVY. By lim Tors

Undersea Lig Plans Studied

Control of Oceans Seen Big Part of Strategy

" WASHINGTON; Dee. 14—A searching reappiaisal of Uncle Sam's undersea war plans has been ordered by the new chief of naval Sherman. “Vice Adm. Francis 8. Low, the man who finally whipped the Nazi sub threat In the Atlantic in World War 1I, has been called back from the Pacific to make it, Adm. Low won't say how long it will take, but three months is the goiil. There is no doubt that Adm. Bherman's in creased emphasis on their problems has been a

_ shot in the arm for submariners. In the past,

they have felt left out. Now they hope undersea warfare actually will assume the top priority the Navy has insisted since VJ-Day it has been assigned,

Pressing Problem

ADM. SHERMAN apparently views undersea warfare as one of his most pressing problems, In his only speech to date, he warned that in two wars “we and our allies suffered heavy losses from enemy submarines and much development has taken place in submarines and more is expected.” He promised to “make certain that every means is exploited to make the Navy fully ready to defeat a third attempt to deny us use of the seas by undersea warfare.” “There actually exist Adm. 8herman sald

in the world today,” “two very powerful navies

and opposite and intensely conflicting missions . that the other naval power has a submarine force larger than ours is a potent argument for the United States to possess—not an equal

number of submarines—but anti-submarine elements of great effectiveness

Every Possible Means

“THESE must permit attacking the (enemy) submarine by évery possible means, not only in our coastal waters and on the high seas, but in the enemy's coastal waters and the bases themselves. Our anti-submarine task

force may include fast carriers in conjunction

with surface and submarine guided missile ships for attacking bases . . . special raider amphibious units for demolition of bases . . . hunter-killer teams and many types of airplanes and blimps. It will require powerful convoy escorty and coastal defense forces, especially against submarines firing guided missiles into out cities.” The Navy now has carrier-and. amphibious task forces. In the Navy of the future, he said,

ou can-expect-to-find-a-new-type-task force.

the anti-submarine task force in recognition of the seriousness of the (Russian) submarine threat.” r

For War Policies

ADM. LOW already has asked for many of the men who served with him as assistant chief of antisubmarine warfare to Fleet Adm. Ernest J. King throughout ‘World War 1I. He will assign each a field of investigation. Their reports eventually will go to Adm. Sherman, Out of them, new undersea war policies may develop. Adm, Low is working with Rear Adm. C. B. Momsen, deputy chief of naval operations for undersea warfare, He says Adm. Momsen has done a good job. If war came tomorrow, he concedes, he would need time to build enough of the anti-submaring Weaposs. but with an adequate number of togls ‘we fauld insure control of the seas. . Adm. Momsen says anti-submarine marines are making striking progress. undersea duels are held regu arly.

Over-all Plan

ADM. LOW warns, however, that undersea warfare cannot be studied alone. It is part of an over-all plan to control the seas. He believes we must nave large carriers— At least of the Essex class—to carry on antisub warfare, He wants to carry the fight to the enemy's submarine bases and production centers and does not think it can be done with “Jeep” carriers. He says our methods of fighting subs in the past—after they are equipped and at sea —are costly in lives and money. ' As ddviser to Adm, Sherman, Adm. Low sits in on Defense Becretary Louis Johnson's war council meetings. The assignment of a threestar admiral to the job is taken as an indication of Adm. Sherman's determination to push undersea war plans to a successful conclusion. ‘

VISIT IN EUROPE . . By Bert Vincent

sub= Mock

Life in Germany

(Editor's Note: Knoxville News-Sentinel,

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. Dec. 14— missed that trip for anything even door knobs on their doors. Seems to me there should be so

y ‘golly,

) sd. oot oe vA sh x Bad ht va

Leading the Lambs to the Slaughter

Bert Vincent, strolling reporter for the has just returned from Germany. Following are some.of his impressions of the trip.) I wouldn't have if the Germans don't have

e¢ books somewhere on why the Germans have handles on theirf doors like we have on auto-

ATOMIC SECRETS

B. to Soviet Russia presents a It will probably be

from the U. tantalizing mystery.

“impossible to find any medium who can contact

the late Harry Hopkins in the opi world as early asthe Russian embassy could get him on the-wire in Washington. — So about the only person who , might have

— shed any tight onthe case was Lt. Gen. Leslie

Groves, commander of the Manhattan Engineer District, which supervised development of the bomb. But his testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities didn’t end the controversy by a long shot. The present Atomic Energy Commission has a hard Tule against commenting on MED affairs. As disclosed by senior investigator Louis J. Russell and ex-Air Force Maj. George Racey Jordan before the House Un-American Acivities Committee, two lend-lease shipments of uranium salts were made by air through Great Falls, Mont.; and Fairbanks, Alaska. Assuming that the shipments were made as described, the big question is how much good they may have done the Russians.

Lend-Lease Requisition

ONE of the atomic secrets revealed at the end of the war concerned this fact that the Russians had requisitioned some uranium compounds through the Lend-Lease Administration. There was considerable arguments at the time over whether to give them any or not, If the request were refused, it might arouse Russian suspicions that the U, was trying to develop an atomic bomb. The decision was finally made to give the Russians a little material-pot enough to do them any good -— just enough to quiet their curiosity . and make them think the United States attached no particdlar importance to uranium products. In the light of testimony now being disclosed, the ruse was a complete failure, Investigator Russell's statement is that on Feb. 1, 1943, the Russian Purchasing Commission In Washington requisitioned 220 pounds of uranium oxide, 220 pounds of uranium nitrate

. and 25 pounds of uranium metal,

The figures in the Russian requisition are of particular interest. They are not just accidental

numbers. As the official S8ymth Report on nuclear fission was to disclose in 1945, the SIDE GI.ANCES . ‘oo

7s Ais” tings

8. government -

Jha / 7 DR

By Peter Edson

Mystery of Uranium Shipment

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14—New testimony on possible - wartime shipments of uranium salts

“critical mass” of fissionable material necessary for an atomic explosion “is generally regarded as between one and 100 kilograms.” This is two to 220 pounds. The Russians may therefore have thought they Knew how much to ask for to make a bomb. But they may also have been a little mixed up in their intelligence reports and their chemistry.

“AS the-Symti- Report alse explains this eritieal

mass of from two to 220 pounds of fissionable material would have to be separated from 140 times as much natural uranium.

Small Amount

THE uranium oxide and uranium nitrate are natural uranium, or uranium salts. So what the Russians got in this first shipment of 440 pounds was one-140th of fissionable uranium. This would be a little over three pounds, assuming they could get 100 per cent extraction. Another interesting detail is that when the order was filled, only 200 pounds of uranium oxide were shipped, instead of the 220. The 25 pounds of uranium metal which the Russians asked for could have been used in experiments on conversion into plutonium-—the operation carried on at the Hanford, Wash., atomic energy plant. Whether it would have been enough’ to do the Russians any good is beside the point, because there is no record this order was ever filled. ‘But the Russians soon discovered their mistake in not asking for enough natural uranium salts to do the many good. On Mar. 19, 1943, they requisitioned “several tons” of uranium nitrate and uranium oxide.

All Supplies Reserved

THERE wasn't that much ayailable, as by this time all U. 8. supplies were reserved for the government. The Russians were able to buy 500 pounds of each salt from Canada, however, and they were spipped through Great Falls by air, guarded by machine guns, according to Maj. Jordan. The Russians made another inquiry through the U. 8. War Production Board for from 10 to 15 tons of uranium salts in August. 1943. By that time the Canadian government had also stopped sales, so the Rusaians got no more. The shipments it is now known that the Russians did get amounted to 1420 pounds. This was enough for not over 10 pounds of fissionable uranium. The 2500 pounds Maj. Jordan talks about includes the weight of the containers.

ALA LER SOR Dat Si

Hoosier Forum

“du wa ren wi ord eT you toy, Wb”

will defend to the death your right to sey i."

‘Injustice of Dog Tax" ~~ By Pat Hogén, Columbus, Ind. A_¥orum writer has come to my rescue in the war on cats, For several years I have bombarded state legislators with facts about the injustice of the dog tax law, but have been unable to get results. 1 have a little Pomeranian that weighs less than four pounds, but I must pay $3 tax. This dog, like hundreds in Indianapolis, never saw a sheep, never will see one (unless it is {from my car window), still we must contribute to an

antiquated law, put on the books 100 years ago

when every farmer had a dozen sheep and the country was full of roving-dogs. 1 do not get to the city often, but I can’t recall seeing sheep at large roaming about the city, still, all city- folks must pay a dog tax, which presumably goes to a fund to pay for sheep killed by dogs, 1 know of no other business that asks the public at large to insure its losses. The only sane solution to the sheep business is for the owner to insure them. If this law must stay, why not a similar law to fine every man who takes a drink, when some drunk runs afoul of the law? Also, why not fine every man who owns a car when some reckless driver has a wreck? Anyone in any city Is familiar with the nuisance of roving cats, and 1 have yet to see a city cat that will not kill chickens as quickly as it kills birds. Too many city folks who tire of cats “drop” them in the country, little suspecting the damage they will do to a farmer's chickens. One sure way to eliminate the cat nuisance is to tax them. Dogs are children’s pets, valuable companions. They prevent burglary and kidnaping. They have saved lives, ¢ ¢ 9

‘Crackdown on Relief’ By C. D. C., Terre Haute, Ind. After watching for 17 years the political parade of professional relief clients who were quite willing to sell their vote for a miserly dole, it is somewhat refreshing to léarn that at least one Indiana trustee has cracked down on the practice, even if an injustice may have been done to a few deserving people. However, 1 suspect the records would show that there have been a thousand injustices done to the American taxpayers in the relief racket for every one that has been done to a relief client. Neither would it seem too bad from a political standpoint to move a family out of one township into another. The trustee got rid of a family who would vote against hin, while the other trustee probably gets a family who will vote for him, The story in The Times goes on to tell how a relief client who, instead of being sent to work at a school to earn his dole, was sent to work at a poultry house which the trustee managed. Such practices should not be condoned, but; unfortunately, it seems to be a standard prac tice by some politicians. Any self-respecting person who is compelled by force of circumstances to accept a dole would rather work for it than to accept it as charity if-he-is-abie to-werk.— That is why, in-my-epin-jon, relief costs would soon be cut to a minimum if everyone able to do so was required to earn his dole by the sweat of his brow.

What Others Say

WE believe . ., . that it is the duty of the (UN) General Assembly to work for the reestablishment of those international conditions

which will make it possible for the people of .

China to determine , . . without outside interference the type of government and the type

of economic and social institutions which they

desire in the future.—U. 8. A Large Philip Jessup. O° @

MOST industries are dominated more and more by monopoly. If this drift continues, it will lead to one or the other of two results: Either big business will want to control the government, in a form of Nazism, or the people will decide to Jet the government rum industry, through a form of state socialism.—Sen. Paul Douglas (D) Illinois, > © I'VE never lived on past glories and never. will. I'm serving notice here and now I'm running (for governor of South Dakota) on what I know about farming and business.—dJoe Foss, wartime Marine flying ace. > © 9 PART of the problem today is the way science has been changing life for 100 years, and with increasing rapidity . . . The atom has made us conscious of the impact on daily life, We have to think about it now.—John Dewey, dean of American philosophers, LE ER

THE chill of unemployment we felt in the summer should be enough to convince us that a recession will strike first in the cities. —Mayor deLesseps Morrison of New Orleans.

By Galbraith WORLD AFFAIRS . . . By Bruce Biossat

injustice.

The mistake, whether consciously made or not, is this; flecting present attitudes and conditions back to cover former

Diplomatic Jitters

WASHINGTON, would-be historians who ought to know better, often fall into an easy error of thinking that distorts past.events and can lead to

Dec. 14—A lot of people, including some

Re-

mobiles in America. And during my whole trip 1 saw no spittoons, gobboons or sandboxes in any hotel, offices or homes. I was told the people do not spit. Not even on the streets. No house cats, either. But lots of geese. Every country home in Germany seems to have two or three .or even a flock of these honking fowls

~ Reason is, goose liver is a deli-

cacy with them. Pete Kirby, guitar picker and jug blower with our Grand Ole Opry troupe, and I found out about that. » ~ »

PETE and 1 were hungry one night after a show. Only place that was open was a real swanky one. Frock - tailed waiters suggested goose liver and beer. When he brought the bill Pete almost fell out of his chair. It was $3.15 “We ought fo buy a whole goose for that,” said Pete. The waiter fellow really lookéd like we'd hurt his feel-

ings. ' “Nein, nein.” he sald, “Goose Mver, it is delicacy.” We paid and got out of there. es ‘@ =» SAD sight ‘to me was a farmer now and then with just oné steer or one horse pulling his wagon from a singletree on one side of the wagon tongue. The team-mate would not be there. It meant that sometime in the recent past the German owner was mighty hungry. He killed the othér work animal for food for himself and family, But don't think I got weepy

over the Germans Germany .

.

lifeShe spread sufwant - and

tarted two wars in my time, so far. fering niisery, death brother there.

died ' fighting over

ONE night a German fellow wanted to play Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody for, me: A beautiful piece of music now and then is good for one's soul, but I'm just plumb foundered on these old classics. Too

much of the sad and heavy ~

stuff makes me want to jump into the river, I told the German fellow that. “Might be a good idea,” he said The German people are sad

people, he said. But they didn't look sad to me. “We are old,” he went on,

“a very old nation, You in the States are too young to know the sobered-down feeling. We German people are old enough to know what contentment,

happiness are within .ourselves.” Imagine that guy talking like that, ” ” ~

IN GERMAN; I say Kaput! Méaning no good, finished, or something like that. If they are so happy with Strauss waltzes and those rhapsodies, 1 say, why do they want to fight all the time? 1 wonder “what. our ° big money floating around there in Germany is going to do to those people. Buck privates

are better off than many of Those,

their bank presidefits. Germans are smart. They know what every rank in our

armed services gets paid. And

i

all over the world. My |

— tockings,

1214

PR. 1949 BY NEA SERVICE, INC. T. M. REG. U. 8. PAT. OF,

“This always reminds me of the little farm where we used to be

snowed in all winter—it's a little different though maybe because | was just a kid then!”

wey watch our boys “spending it, Course, - they're as nice as tpie when they're talking to you.. But I wonder. - » » TAKE that German girl, a singer, who was up at the Press Club in Heidelberg where we were after the show. I fell to talking with her. Bhe had on some thick old I asked her why she djdn't wear nylons, “Because I can't get into the PX.” she sald. But 1 don't know whether

-

she was telling the truth or not.

You don’t know nothin’ in.

that country.

1 wanted to go out to her 'd never been in. a

home. German home in Germany. I wanted a good old German dinner, 80 she said her mother liked wine. I thought I'd get a good German dinner in return for a bottle of wine, S80 I got the wine, She took it, and went home-without me, I ain't had my good German dinner yet,

sian Communist regime,

- times when the climate of history actually whs quite different. In the last year or two, for example, the jitters we've suffered about Russian intentions have led many of our citizens to dig into earlier chapters on relations between us and the Soviet Union. ~ ~ » FREQUENTLY any evidence of contact or dealing with the Russians is greeted .as automatic proof of dis.

loyalty Jo the United States.

Certainly we must take a grave view of any relations that amount to espionage or genuine subversion. But the line between such activities and other kinds of contact is not always well drawn. That's where the. error in thinking comes in. Many forget that Russia was our wartime ally, that in those hard days of 1943 to 1945 it was considered not only proper but downright fashionable to truck with the Roviets. To look back upon countless events placed against this backdrop and condemn sweepingly all who made contact with the Russians is hardly sensible. } -“ % mm LIKEWISE, reiations with the Soviet Union of the 1030's are sometimes misjudged through similar error. Only in 1933 had we finally given diplomatie ‘recognition to the Rusand Americans . generally were not overjoyed at what they read of Soviet domestic and fore! activities. But one thought “Russia the menace it is con-

sidered today. It had joined the League of Nations and was working eagerly for ‘collective security.” This habit of reflecting current attitudes back into the past is not limited to matters affecting the Russians. Ordinary citizens and historians do it all the time, ~ » » ONE OF the practices is to misjudge the moral temper of a period. Biographers looking at late 10th Century United States like to talk about the ‘robber barons,” a phrase intended to denote the wickedness of many leading businessmen of the time. But as the more discerning historians point out, the events and figures of that period must be viewed in their own setting. Much that we would condemn today was not regarded as reprehensible then. We might criticize a moral code that seemed to eondobw acts we think are evil, But we can't - fairly’ gauge individual behavior in 1885 by the stand-

ards of 1950.

IT'S LIKE trying to appraise Chicago as if it were New York or New Orleans. To understand a city you have to know its climate, its history, its economic basis, its cultural roots. So it is with a moment in history. The events-of that ‘moment must be ured against “the background that gave rise to them-—-not by the

, attitudes of another day.

most common

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