U.S. CONSUL IN MUKDEN

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25970, 25 November 1949, Page 7

U.S. CONSUL IN MUKDEN

COMMUNISTS RELEASE MR WARD SENTENCE COMMUTED TO DEPORTATION (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, November 23. Mr Angus Ward, the American Con-sul-General at Mukden, has been released from gaol by the Chinese Communists, and ordered out of the country. The State Department, which announced this, said that the Communists had also released four consulate assistants who were arrested with Mr Ward bn October 24 on what the department called “trumped-up” charges of beating and insulting two Chinese in a wage dispute. The department said it had received word of the releases from Mr Ward himself. It was the first direct word from him in a month. The Communists gave Mr Ward and his assistants a trial before the People’s Court, which found them guilty, and imposed varying terms of imprisonment. The sentences were commuted to deporta-, tion.

Mr Ward made his report in a telephone conversation with the American Consul-General at Peiping (Mr Edmund Clubb). The State Department instructed Mr Clubb to tell Mr Ward to leave Mukden immediately with his entire staff. The four convicted with Mr Ward were Messrs Ralph Rehberg, a clerk, <shiro Tatsumi, a mechanic, both United States citizens, Cranco Cicogna, and Alfred Kllstan, both European employees Of the Consulate.

The (sentences imposed were:- Mr Ward, six months’ imprisonment; Messrs Rehberg and Klistan, four months’ imprisonment; Messrs Tatsumi and Cicogna, three months’ imprisonment. The State Department said that Mr Ward also reported in his telephone conversation with Mr Clubb that in addition to being charged with the. assault of Chinese workers, he was charged with certain financial obligations including compensation to the injured, severance pay, and extra salary payments. The latter two charges apparently were in connexion with the closure of the Consulate and the discharge of the staff. The State Department added that it had not received a report from Mr Ward of what actually happened on October 11 when the alleged assault took place, and in the period up to the actual arrests on October 24. American officials had hopefully looked for some favourable development in the case since the State Department last week asked 30 nations, including Russia, to express their concern to the Chinese Communists.