PAPERS TO BE WITHHELD

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25445, 17 March 1948, Page 5

PAPERS TO BE WITHHELD

MR TRUMAN’S ORDER TO DEPARTMENTS LOYALTY OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES (Rec. 7 P.m.) WASHINGTON, Mar. 15. President Truman ordered Federal agencies to-day to refuse to let Congress or the Courts have any secret papers bearing oh the loyalty of Government employees. By doing So he set up what may become a major test between the Government’s executive and legislative branches, in which the referee would be the third branch—the Judiciary. Mr Truman’s order was prompted oy the case Of Dr. Edward Condon, Director of the National Bureau of Standards, who, according to a sub-commit-tee, was associated knowingly or unknowingly With alleged Russian spies. Dr. Condon disputed this and denied that he was any risk to the nation s atomic security. The Un-American Activities Committee of the House of Representatives has tried, and railed, to get the papers used by a Commerce Department “loyalty board’’ which approved Dr. Condon for his high scientific post. In his order, Mr Truman said it was necessary in the interests of national security and welfare to preserve the confidential character and the sources of information furnished, and to protect Government personnel against the dissemination of unfounded or disproved allegations.

INDIA-PAKISTAN DISPUTE

BOUNDARY COMMISSION TO BE SET UP

(Rec. 8 p.m.) NEW DELHI, March 15. India and Pakistan have decided to establish a joint boundary commission to settle a dispute involving the boundary between the Sylhet district of East Bengal and the province of Assam, which have been a cause of controversy between the two Dominions. .

In Karachi, a spokesman of the Pakistan Ministry of Finance, who had returned from financial talks in Bombay, said that India and Pakistan had agreed on the questions of currency exchange and the establishment of a separate Pakistan State bank.